Covid19 Spare time

[Donstar]

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend.     We had planned to have relatives share a roast beef supper with us but as mentioned before, they are home with Covid.  It is good that we can  share a meal with others and yet people won't hesitate to stay home if they are sick.  We aren't past covid, we are living with covid.   Last night I spoke on the phone with a past colleague as we occasionally do on special occasions.  She is very involved with her church and I had assumed her day would have been special now that everything has "opened up".   It turns out she is more worried and isolated than ever and has spent far too many days by herself!  I  wonder how many are like her?  These are seniors, living alone without immediate family and not in a designated seniors' facility.  I suspect most of us know a relative or friend in this group who may benefit from our time. It is a most rewarding experience to give your time to someone who needs it!

 

 

[KARNUT]

My mother in law. Prior to Covid, sang in the church choir and back up piano player. During and after got a dog walks dog twice a day in her subdivision. Every one knows her some walk with her. She quit driving wouldn’t go anywhere. She has meal on wheels and my wife does her shopping. She drops by 5 days a week. Covid fear changed her, the continued talk about a new wave keeps the fear in her. Doesn’t matter if it’s as deadly or not. Hearing Covid is all it takes. My 92 year old father in law on the other hand. After having Covid and the shots he never changed a thing.

[Donstar]

Last week I endorsed passport renewals for the family next door.  I was sort of surprised how both teenage children printed their signatures on their applications.   Last night my teenage grandson phoned with a thank you for the Birthday Card we recently sent to him.   We know that our grandkids typically just turn our cards upside down to see what falls out and don't spend time with the message.  However, this 15 year old made a comment on how impressed he was with the handwriting in the card.  He thought how cool it would be to be able to do that!   Cursive writing is something I once incorporated into my daily lessons and witnessed the transition from being required instruction to being phased out. The part that hit me yesterday is our handwriting, no matter how neat,  is a challenge to read for a growing part of our population. Those of us who occasionally take the time to add handwritten notes with our parcels may need to rethink our communication strategies! 

[txab]

Cursive is a foreign language to most kids and young adults of today.

 

My cursive is not as good as it was years ago. Main reason is I don't use it for much. Print everything pretty much for work. Being in the Engineering, Architectural and construction field, I print so everyone can read/understand. Then the only problem is the people who never learned to read and write. I see it regularly

[Grumpy Bear]

5 minutes ago, txab said:

Cursive is a foreign language to most kids and young adults of today.

 

My cursive is not as good as it was years ago. Main reason is I don't use it for much. Print everything pretty much for work. Being in the Engineering, Architectural and construction field, I print so everyone can read/understand. Then the only problem is the people who never learned to read and write. I see it regularly

 

Big Chief notebook lesson books! Cursive was not just taught as a tool but as an artform and graded as such when I was a pup. Even when I took drafting I used the more artful slant print and neatly wrote margin notes. They don't teach anymore anything that does not make money or saves money. Forming humans is lost. 

[Grumpy Bear]

23 hours ago, Donstar said:

Cursive writing is something I once incorporated into my daily lessons and witnessed the transition from being required instruction to being phased out.

 

Curious, as an educator, do you know the reasoning behind obliterating this art form? 

[aseibel]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

Curious, as an educator, do you know the reasoning behind obliterating this art form? 

I took penmanship classes in the late 80s. I was told we needed it to write checks. I probably write two dozen checks a year. The generation following me, most don't even have a checkbook.

 

In my first drafting classes in the late 90s, I learned lettering. Now I do everything on a computer. I wish I could have traded my time spent leaning handwriting and instead spent more time learning how to type properly. I still don't type the correct way, I'm just fast enough to get by. Luckily my work is mostly done with the mouse.

 

There's just no use in society for handwriting anymore, you can blame computers and smartphones for that. Just like everything else they killed from your childhood. 

[Grumpy Bear]

14 minutes ago, aseibel said:

I took penmanship classes in the late 80s. I was told we needed it to write checks. I probably write two dozen checks a year. The generation following me, most don't even have a checkbook.

 

In my first drafting classes in the late 90s, I learned lettering. Now I do everything on a computer. I wish I could have traded my time spent leaning handwriting and instead spent more time learning how to type properly. I still don't type the correct way, I'm just fast enough to get by. Luckily my work is mostly done with the mouse.

 

There's just no use in society for handwriting anymore, you can blame computers and smartphones for that. Just like everything else they killed from your childhood. 

 

No real use for art or music or food diversity either but life is enhanced by it.

 

Cursive is art my friend.

 

How much of your life is spent with art? Most of it. Picture your world without it. A life in gray.

Everything tasteless. Voiceless birds. Monotone speech. OMG only one font???? One ringtone. 

Everyone blonde and green eyed. One language. One culture.

 

Cursive is part of OUR culture that is dying as fast as people can find ways to make it useless.

 

Removing Cursive is like forcing Crow children to learn English killing their tongue and their voice and a heck of a try at their culture. Thank goodness for elders.....

 

What script is the Declaration of Independence written in?

Todays children can't even read it. 

 

I learned both cursive and typing. Even learned 'key punch'.  How about Note-hand or Shorthand. I can still multitask.

My body will give up on cursive before I will. By that time, I won't be able to print either. Wish I could Morse Code!! 

Now you got me started. 

[txab]

I so rarely use cursive. Rarely write a check. So when I do have to write a check, I really have to think about how to do it  so as not to mess it up. Doubt if my current sig. matches sig from years ago. It wouldn't look drastically different, but I have developed a different way of doing it that causes it be different My dad had the greatest handwriting. I still marvel at it when I run across old documents he signed. My oldest brother inherited the ability apparently, or my dad really worked with him on it. My middle brother and I missed out.

 

Signing all these electronic pads........... it's gibberish, no matter what I do. Think I'm going to start marking them with an "X". 

 

[Donstar]

23 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

Curious, as an educator, do you know the reasoning behind obliterating this art form? 

I believe aseibel answered this but I will respond with another story.  I remember participating in a healthy staff discussion as to whether we should allow calculators to be used in math exams.  The pro-calculator argument was winning but I was on the fence.  My opinion evolved when one person asked, "What if you're lost in the woods and don't have a calculator?"  Efficient and legible handwriting skills were  important at a time when typewriters were special!  Cursive writing has little application in our daily lives is now is part of our history.  Use it or lose it!  

[shakenfake]

When the **** are you going to be doing math in the woods lmfao

[Donstar]

Exactly!  The funny thing is this discussion took place a good decade before we all had cell phones c/w calculator function! Most of us carry a calculator into the woods whether we need one or not!

[Grumpy Bear]

31 minutes ago, Donstar said:

Exactly!  The funny thing is this discussion took place a good decade before we all had cell phones c/w calculator function! Most of us carry a calculator into the woods whether we need one or not!

 

I expect the next step then logically would be to bulldoze the Parthenon.  Burn the Mona Lisa. Ban the music of Paganini! Stop all study of Babylonian or Egyptian cuneiform.   

 

That is what is being said. Right? Something in 'history' that serves no current purpose need not be preserved.  

 

I was in one of my favorite stores just yesterday in a small town about 50 miles away, Oregon, and talking to the clerk found out quite by accident that the local school system has revived cursive as part of the mandatory requirements. It would seem teachers are tired of defending the accuracy of printed founding father documents to ever questioning students who can't read the original format.  Trust is a fragile thing. 

 

I found out a few months ago the my mother, now passed for decades, has published music from the 1940's. All of it written in some pretty spectacular cursive. Mom was a art teacher.  Imagine receiving this news without the ability to read it. My grandmothers recipes or her journals.  

[shakenfake]

If you are going to teach cursive it should be an elective rather than mandatory. I understand it is an art form but it is just that, art. Much much different than using a pen and paper to do math.

[Donstar]

8 minutes ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

I expect the next step then logically would be to bulldoze the Parthenon.  Burn the Mona Lisa. Ban the music of Paganini! Stop all study of Babylonian or Egyptian cuneiform.   

 

That is what is being said. Right? Something in 'history' that serves no current purpose need not be preserved.  

I don't know why we'd want to destroy  our memorabilia and this is not what is being said, imo.   I don't believe our ability to decipher handwritten notes will disappear.  "Is there an app for that??"    I still have my father's cursive writing skill books from the mid 30's.  Many hours of /////0000// are reflected in this treasure!  You and I can name many things that were taught that are no longer of much use.  Roman numerals and slide rules come to mind...