What is your pet peeve of the day? -- 2021

[folivier]

So for these young'uns who don't read or write cursive how do they sign their name? Or is that not required anymore in their world?

 

[Aerides]

So for these young'uns who don't read or write cursive how do they sign their name? Or is that not required anymore in their world?

I'm in the same world as most of you, and I rarely sign anything. No one cares what I put on a check (all 2 per year). No one cares about my signature on the occasional contract.

I made a scribble of my name long years ago, not cursive, not standard format in any way. 2 marriages later, it's still the same scribble, from which the first letter of my first name is just about legible.

 

[Time2]

Even today I could not write a capital G in cursive if you paid me.

I had to google Cursive Capital G. I could not picture what it looked like.

 

[aja8888]

So for these young'uns who don't read or write cursive how do they sign their name? Or is that not required anymore in their world?

X, or if that's too difficult for today's graduates, just a mark of any kind.

 

[CardsFan]

Connecticut still has several technical high schools. That's where I went and they still pump out good trades graduates.

I agree there are still a few Technical High Schools. What I am talking about is taking "shop" in a regular Junior HS and HS. From what I have heard from people with kids in school is it just doesn't exist anymore. Without exposure to technical skills how would you know you wanted to go to a technical school?

 

[aja8888]

I agree there are still a few Technical High Schools. What I am talking about is taking "shop" in a regular Junior HS and HS. From what I have heard from people with kids in school is it just doesn't exist anymore. Without exposure to technical skills how would you know you wanted to go to a technical school?

Technical aptitude is developed at an early age. With me, it was taking apart things to see how they worked and putting them back together. I recall helping Dad do a valve job on a 1947 Plymouth where I did most of the work at 14 years old.

Plus, in CT tech high schools, you have to pass an aptitude test to get accepted (from memory on this).

 

[Gumby]

One of them is in my town. Students get a high school diploma and a vocational certificate in their chosen area of study. I do not know the entry testing requirements, but I do know that it is always full with a waiting list.

 

[Andre1969]

I had to google Cursive Capital G. I could not picture what it looked like.

I know the cursive capital G, because my last name starts with G. However, I actually find it quicker and easier to just draw the regular G, and then write the rest in cursive. And, wasn't that the original idea behind cursive, that it was quicker to write than printing?

These days when I sign my name to a check or anything else though, it's really just the first letter of my first name in cursive, and the rest is really just a squiggle, so by the time I get to where that "G" would be, it's just part of the squiggle.

 

[Time2]

I agree there are still a few Technical High Schools. What I am talking about is taking "shop" in a regular Junior HS and HS. From what I have heard from people with kids in school is it just doesn't exist anymore. Without exposure to technical skills how would you know you wanted to go to a technical school?

I grew up in Michigan, with a large auto industry. In the early 70s, my HS had a wood and metal machine shop. The machine shop had 9 big lathes, several milling machines, drill presses, a shaper, a foundry, and tool crib.They were preparing workers for the auto industry. I'm in Florida now, my kids HS had none of those, no shop classes at all. OK science rooms and lots of computers. Worked out OK, I have a chemist and a dentist. But the last few years I have been imparting my machine and electronic experience to the chemist.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Even today I could not write a capital G in cursive if you paid me.

I had to google Cursive Capital G. I could not picture what it looked like.

I recently had to write a sympathy card that had a word that started with a capital G. Even though I frequently write in cursive, I had to practice it a few times before writing the card to make sure I had it right!

 

[Chuckanut]

Connecticut still has several technical high schools. That's where I went and they still pump out good trades graduates.

People who can make things and fix things are in high demand. I make my auto mechanic and handyman a batch of brownies whenever they service my car or fix something in my home.

 

[pacergal]

I had to google Cursive Capital G. I could not picture what it looked like.

Oh that picture takes me back---I remember filling pages and pages of practice letters on those in elementary school. aaaAAAbbbBBB........in cursive, and getting corrections if it wasn't perfect and match those dark green example strips across the blackboard!!

 

[O2Bfree]

Oh that picture takes me back---I remember filling pages and pages of practice letters on those in elementary school. aaaAAAbbbBBB........in cursive, and getting corrections if it wasn't perfect and match those dark green example strips across the blackboard!!

Lol, I remember looking up at that green strip on my first day of 1st grade and feeling terrified because I didn't think I could possibly learn all those squiggly letters.

 

[euro]

Hmmm, intersting curriculum for first to third grade.
https://mycursive.com/what-grade-do-you-learn-cursive-writing/

"Most schools start teaching cursive writing in the third grade or when students are 8 years old. By that time, kids are old enough to focus on the motion of the pencil and have the needed motor skills that enable them to make the loops while writing different letters.
However, some schools and parents might start a bit earlier. Students can learn cursive handwriting when they are in the first grade, as experts believe that printing can be more difficult for younger children starting from the age of four. "


Back in 1954 when I started elementary school, PE was required daily from first to 8th grade. Music, arithmetic/math was core, all those years as well. Yes by 5th grade we we required to calculate change without using fingers or abacus. Calculators were not yet on the horizon for personal use. They were big mechanical contraptions weighing many Kilos.
As was cursive in 1st through 3d grade. Among a bunch of others like History and separate world history, geography etc.. Someone else noted Coding, really, in third grade? Starting 4th grade Russian language was reqired with French oprtion as an addition to Russian. We also went to school 6 days a week, 0800 to 1600.

Oh well. Never mind.

Carry on.

Yes, I hear you! I went to school on the old continent too - 6 days a week, etc. Things have changed, many things had to be added to the curriculum, so some things had to be dropped, regardless of how many hours the kids go to school. Unfortunately, things like PE largely were eliminated too. That is BAD. Cursive writing however, was a GOOD choice to eliminate. If I think back to MY education, I would put cursive writing at the very TOP of my list of utterly useless things I had to study/practice. Never once experienced ANY upside whatsoever for knowing cursive.
Cursive had its use at some point, but not for a long, long time.

 

[Gumby]

The ability to read cursive has proven useful in my genealogical research. And when I was working, I always took notes in cursive so I could keep up when people were speaking.

 

[Zona]

My oldest niece has no clue how to write or read cursive. I guess kids in her classes are mostly tech-based these days. I think it’s great that they are more comfortable with the technology but can’t help worrying that something will really be lost to them in terms of human history.

There is a wonderful crowdsourcing effort by the Library of Congress to transcribe/digitize all the handwritten and printed materials that can’t be read by OCR scanning. Being able to read cursive (esp. old-timey handwriting) is essential for this task. (The initiative is called “By the People”; such a great project if anyone is interested!)

We’d better hurry up and get through everything we can; it sounds like future generations might not be able to decipher these documents!

 

[aja8888]

Just think.....no more forged signatures to find! The crooks will have a field day with X's and scribbles.

 

[CardsFan]

We’d better hurry up and get through everything we can; it sounds like future generations might not be able to decipher these documents!

Yeah. In 50 years (probably less) no one in authority will even be able to read the original Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution. They will just rely on the Twitter or Instagram version (probably written by someone in another country). What could possibly go wrong with that?

 

[Texas Proud]

Yeah. In 50 years (probably less) no one in authority will even be able to read the original Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution. They will just rely on the Twitter or Instagram version (probably written by someone in another country). What could possibly go wrong with that?

You can always use Google Translate....

 

[Koolau]

I had to google Cursive Capital G. I could not picture what it looked like.

Heh, heh, wait until you look up the cursive capital Q.

When I got out of school, I just used capital G and Q and other "curly" capitals in print form.

By the way, I always thought capital Q looks like a two (2).

 

[Koolau]

Technical aptitude is developed at an early age. With me, it was taking apart things to see how they worked and putting them back together. I recall helping Dad do a valve job on a 1947 Plymouth where I did most of the work at 14 years old.

Plus, in CT tech high schools, you have to pass an aptitude test to get accepted (from memory on this).

Yeah, I did a 49 Chevy valve job mostly by myself at 16 (Pretty Woman was the number one hit at that time - I always had the radio on.) When I torqued that head back on and the car started up I was shocked. Of course, I needed help setting the valves as it's kinda a two man j*b. A family friend loaned me his "MOTORS MANUAL" for that year.

Later, I helped a guy at w*rk (who did mechanic w*rk on the side) do the valves on my Olds V8.

My pièce de résistance was fixing a bad rod bearing in my sister's boyfriend's Renault. I diagnosed the problem (first insuring that it wasn't, for instance, a bad valve train issue) and then figured out how to do it. Of course, when I got in there, I realized it was so bad that fixing it was just to quiet the noise long enough to get rid of it....... The rod bearing journal was chewed up, so the $100 car was a $50 pile of junk. But it sounded sweet as pie.

I don't think most kids these days even know how a car w*rks but YMMV.

 

[euro]

My oldest niece has no clue how to write or read cursive. I guess kids in her classes are mostly tech-based these days. I think it’s great that they are more comfortable with the technology but can’t help worrying that something will really be lost to them in terms of human history.

There is a wonderful crowdsourcing effort by the Library of Congress to transcribe/digitize all the handwritten and printed materials that can’t be read by OCR scanning. Being able to read cursive (esp. old-timey handwriting) is essential for this task. (The initiative is called “By the People”; such a great project if anyone is interested!)

We’d better hurry up and get through everything we can; it sounds like future generations might not be able to decipher these documents!

I don't think there is any reason to panic. There will always be people who will learn how to read cursive documents. Just like there are still plenty of people who can decipher hieroglyphs. Have you ever tried to read the Magna Carta? that's a tough ask even if you read cursive letters fluently. The old English used in those days is almost a "foreign language", so reading old documents is not just about cursive vs print letters. And, for the most part, we manage fine.

 

[Pointby2]

I don't think there is any reason to panic. There will always be people who will learn how to read cursive documents. Just like there are still plenty of people who can decipher hieroglyphs. Have you ever tried to read the Magna Carta? that's a tough ask even if you read cursive letters fluently. The old English used in those days is almost a "foreign language", so reading old documents is not just about cursive vs print letters. And, for the most part, we manage fine.

They can always learn how to read and write cursive on line. YouTube has dozens of videos.

 

[Koolau]

I don't think there is any reason to panic. There will always be people who will learn how to read cursive documents. Just like there are still plenty of people who can decipher hieroglyphs. Have you ever tried to read the Magna Carta? that's a tough ask even if you read cursive letters fluently. The old English used in those days is almost a "foreign language", so reading old documents is not just about cursive vs print letters. And, for the most part, we manage fine.

Old German is really tough to decipher as well. Especially since I'm far from fluent.

 

[CardsFan]

My pet peeve today has nothing to do with cursive

People that ignore stop signs, at crosswalks, in parking lots. The cross walk should be enough to pay attention to pedestrians. The Stop sign says STOP.

Today I was walking out of the grocery store. In the crosswalk. They had a stop sign. I LOOKED right at them. And they blew thru anyway.

I guess MY mistake was making eye contact. Maybe next time I should just let them hit me NO.

Yeah. I DID yell, and point at the sign, for what good it did.

Oh, and Get Off of My Lawn.

OK. Now I feel better.