Can your kids read cursive?

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Designer-Carpenter88@reddit

They are in school, of course they can. Stop listening to boomers, they 100% teach cursive in school

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ViQueen331965@reddit

Not necessarily in PA they don't. The State Senate just passed a law that it has to be taught.

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Designer-Carpenter88@reddit

Sounds like one of those useless laws they pass to make boomers happy when they are already doing it

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If you can't read cursive, you can't read the US' founding documents. And you could say, well, they're printed up all over the Internet. True, but anything printed can be misprinted to mislead and outright lie. We want to be able to ascertain the truth in all ways possible. And no, here in PA, some schools have not been teaching cursive for many years. There is a girl that works in a store where I work. She's a supervisor. Has never been taught cursive. Last year had to ask me what our manager had said in a note to her. The other kids in her store didn't know cuz they hadn't been taught either. She had to find me to read the note to her. Why would we want succeeding generations to know less than we do?

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BananaMapleIceCream@reddit

I’m much more concerned that my kid seems incapable of any spatial reasoning and map reading now that he is about to start driving solo. We live near a major city and he never knows what direction it is from our location.

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Oliver_Klozoff653@reddit

It has also been irrelevant since the invention of the word processor

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

Good point. Maybe that’s why teachers use printing or type everything when they’re demonstrating.

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JoWhee@reddit

I was just listening to talk radio. I happened to be driving home late, I usually listen to music. They were talking about cars with manual transmissions. One of the young hosts said driving a manual transmission is like writing in cursive. I’d like to do both occasionally but I can’t do either. Aside the odd simile I find it a little sad that some people won’t have the fun of a spirited drive with a manual transmission with a clutch, not paddle shifters, or writing a real letter to someone, even if it’s just to tell them off.

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No-Agent-1611@reddit

When I was in my 40’s I was looking for a part time job and a local high end restaurant was looking for valets. The manager was very dismissive…until I said of course I can drive a stick! The car I just bought is my first automatic. Had fun and made decent money for a while.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

That’s a coincidence! True true. And most car makers won’t even make manual transmission anymore. Remember it used to be cheaper to buy Manuel over automatic. Even Europe now is diminishing their manual cars. What’s happening?!?

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Latter_Upstairs6567@reddit

My 23 year old can. My 14 year old can NOT. All he learned was to sign his own signature and let’s just say he didn’t ace the assignment.

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meekbootz@reddit

It's hard reading my grandmas hand writing when I receive a birthday card.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

But hopefully the cash in them is self-explanatory 😉

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TabithaMouse@reddit

I'm 41 and I can't read that crap! I was taught how to, but no one bothered to teach penmanship and the only people who want to write in cursive are those who's handwriting is either big, bubbly, & curly or illegible squiggles. Either way, I can't tell what it is!

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Lisitska@reddit

Yes, they are in upper elementary school and read and write cursive very well (ex. they can decipher my mom's cursive better than my husband).

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wyohman@reddit

I can barely remember. It had is place but those days are over. I also wish roman numerals would die.

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Revolutionary-Fan235@reddit

The other day, I was making a custom card for a child. I struggled to find a pretty font that could be read by someone who couldn't read cursive. Unfortunate.

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cpom71@reddit

Both of my kids (18 and 23) can read and write cursive. My nieces and nephews, who are a bit older, cannot.

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Chrisismybrother@reddit

Two can, third, who is dyslexic, cannot.

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Fish-Weekly@reddit

No. When my mom would write them notes in cards, I usually would have to translate for them.

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Metella76@reddit

My son, 29, can't. I tried to teach him, but "God, mom, it's all digital now". He's now learning because, well, life.

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ExplanationOk3049@reddit

18f can sign her name in cursive and kinda read it, 21m “signed” his drivers license in all lower case print.

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Bay_de_Noc@reddit

Yes, my (77F) kids (58M and 52F) can both read AND write cursive.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

Well that makes sense, since your “kids” are Gen X. can your GRANDKIDS?

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SpacePoddity@reddit

We moved right before my daughter would have started learning to write cursive. Wound moving to where the school district taught it the year before but I think had started to phase it out. So she missed the learning of it entirely, but for the most part can read it if it’s highly legible.

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Quirky-Spirit-5498@reddit

Yes, and my 10 year old grandson can read cursive. He takes a bit of time to get through some words, or if handwriting is difficult to read, but he doesn't need help figuring it out. He can use context clues if needed.

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Queasy-Extension6465@reddit

29 and 31 they can write and read cursive.

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PepsiAllDay78@reddit

I used nothing but cursive since the third grade. Both of my kids can read and write in cursive. They wouldn't know what I wrote to them, otherwise!

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Leo-monkey@reddit

This is how my kids learned. In school they only learned how to sign their own name, but I wrote all my notes to them in cursive at home and they learned to read it.

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IfICouldStay@reddit

Of course. They learned cursive in elementary school about eight years ago. It’s so wired to me that people think this is some kind of dying art.

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DainasaurusRex@reddit

It is, depending on where you live.

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DainasaurusRex@reddit

My 22-year-old converted to writing entirely in cursive, so yes! She has amazing penmanship.

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LadyNorbert@reddit

My kids can't read at all. But they're cats, so they can get away with that kind of crap. My best friend, however, is only eight years younger than me and can't read cursive.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

Can your cats read your texts? That’s when the danger starts 🐈

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LadyNorbert@reddit

The younger two, definitely not. The oldest is very smart, though, I wouldn't put it past him.

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xpunkrockmomx@reddit

My daughter (28)can, but i don't think my son (24) is great at it. He'll say "just read it to me". I think he CAN but won't be bothered.

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Jakeandellwood@reddit

Both my older daughters read and wright cursive, my 13 year old can read it but doesn’t write it except for an excellent signature.

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ZetaWMo4@reddit

Mine can read legible cursive. If it looks like someone used their feet while writing cursive then they might have trouble reading it and so would I.

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drifter3026@reddit

My kids (23 & 22) learned cursive until about Grade 4, when the district abandoned it. They can kinda read it, but not well. And not if the handwriting is less than perfect.

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funsk8mom@reddit

My kids call it spaghetti writing and cannot read it. They are 19 and 20

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trUth_b0mbs@reddit

my kids can read and write in cursive because I taught them how to when they were younger. I was really upset they took cursive away from the curriculum so I taught it at home.

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OutlandishnessFew773@reddit

I volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Winnipeg and we were making Valentine’s cards last week. One of the kids asked me to write their Valentine’s Day message to their Mom in cursive. The kids were so thrilled with handwriting that I had to help everyone at my table write their Valentine’s messages in cursive. I was surprised at how interested they were in the old fashioned writing.

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Last_Inevitable8311@reddit

Mine can’t. I have to print my cards and notes to her.

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hocfutuis@reddit

My daughter can decipher my scrawl, but I'm not sure how well she'd cope with other people's, or the more formal styles.

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QuestnsEverything@reddit

I’m teaching my granddaughter cursive! She is only 6 and really picking it up!

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butterflygardyn@reddit

Nope. My oldest had 1 semester of cursive in 3rd grade. My youngest didn't even get that. I taught them to sign their names.

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AliviasGigi@reddit

This! I had to teach my youngest to sign his name when he got a drivers license.

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cometshoney@reddit

Same here. When they asked what they should do, I said just do what your dad does. Write the first letter, then squiggle. Repeat.

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Boomstyck@reddit

None of my three can. School didn't teach it and I didn't see much use for it. I'm 50. I can't remember the last time I wrote in cursive. With social media and technology I think it will die out sooner rather than later.

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shammy_dammy@reddit

Yes. They can read my handwriting. They can read their father's handwriting. They could read their teacher's handwriting and notes.

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Jennyreviews1@reddit

Yes. But I had to teach my kids to write cursive to begin with. Seriously… they stopped teaching it in school. Which is very upsetting because at least half the world still writes in cursive. So I had to teach them cursive… lol

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creeva@reddit

This is an example of why cursive is useless. Yes, quite a bit of the world uses cursive - but there are at least three major types of cursive with some letters being extremely different. Even the cursive they are taught now is different than what we were taught - the modern cursive Q looks like a Q and not a 2 like our era was taught. You can go from 3 major and many other subsets of cursive - but block lettering is constant the world over.

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juleeff@reddit

My oldest 2 can read cursive without issue. My youngest, neurodivergent, had 2 years of 1:1 cursive with an OT. He can't read it and can only write his first name in cursive.

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creeva@reddit

Yes and has better handwriting than me .a that being said, outside of signatures I haven’t used cursive since 1988. Useless skill - I’m not saying it shouldn’t be taught - just in art class more than writing.

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Bitter_Peach_8062@reddit

Yes. When I realized the school wasn't teaching it, I did.

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elphaba00@reddit

Not sure about the 13 year old, but the 19 year old said he can read it a bit. He said he’d to get better at it because he’d like to read old documents that are both in cursive and German

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KitchenNazi@reddit

My kid still has to learn cursive 🙄

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PahzTakesPhotos@reddit

My kids are in their 30s, so yes, they can. (36f, 34m, 32f).

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tranquilrage73@reddit

They can read and write it.

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borborhick@reddit

This blows my mind. My kids and my grandkids can read and write in cursive. It's taught in grade four on.

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Didthatyesterday2@reddit

My 8 year old is learning to write it in school, so yes.

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AdhesivenessEqual166@reddit

All my kids can. I made sure they learned when I found out the elementary schools weren't teaching cursive. They're in their 20s and early 30s.

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monroebaby@reddit

My 4 teens can. They went to a charter arts school that taught cursive.

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sherriechs87@reddit

My 29 year old has a Masters degree and can’t read cursive. He can (sort of) sign his name in pseudo cursive. I paid for 12 years of private school, apparently cursive was not covered.

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Zesty-B230F@reddit

Did your kid learn cursive?

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

The my did it in elementary, but always printed or mostly typed past grade 5 so the skill never got refined.

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Zesty-B230F@reddit

I'm sorta torn on learning cursive. We all did in the old days, but I'd hardly call my current writing style as "traditional cursive ", more like a 30 year evolution of it. I used to feel the same way about learning to drive stick. Nice to know, but not really necessary to get around in 2026.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

That makes total sense. After all we don’t speak or write like Shakespeare anymore.

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hippocampus237@reddit

Yes. Courtesy of Catholic elementary school.

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Theflyinghillbilly3@reddit

My 22 year old son can’t; they weren’t teaching it in school when he was in elementary. My daughter was two years behind him but she taught herself!

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Temporary_Client7585@reddit

My teenagers learned it in elementary school.

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Rhiannon8404@reddit

My son can read and write cursive. He usually prints, but then, so do I. Old fashioned cursive can be hard for even me to read. We have an 80+ year old volunteer whose handwriting took me a while to decipher.

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PMO-1976@reddit

Yes they can. Except mine because it's terrible

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

Are you a Dr? 😉

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PMO-1976@reddit

I need to finish my dissertation then technically yes. But I have well documented issues of poor hamstring going back to second grade

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dewihafta@reddit

Specifically sent my kid to a charter where they still teach it. When we traveled to dc to see the constitution and declaration, there were folks older than him claiming they couldnt read it.

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AgileMastodon0909@reddit

My 13 year old can read and writes in cursive.

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CSILalaAnn@reddit

My 15 year old daughter can read and write in cursive.

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Zadyria_Gelm@reddit

My 20yo cannot. He didn't get it in school at all. Yeah, I should have tried harder to teach him.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

For me it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t be able to read cursive. (Even if mine is not the most refined)

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mhiaa173@reddit

I teach 5th grade (so 10-11 year olds) and if I need to send a note to the office that I don't want them to read, I write it in cursive! When I was writing thank you notes to some of them for Christmas gifts, I realized I wrote in cursive, and had to start over.

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Sharp-Sandwich-9779@reddit (OP)

Love this! So instead of having to learn another language to speak in code, just cursive write!

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DragonFaery13@reddit

My 22 year old can, I think she was taught in school, but I also taught her before she was taught in school.

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dbrmn73@reddit

Both mine can read and write it

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Tensionheadache11@reddit

My kids are older (30,24) pretty sure the 30 year old can, mostly because he works with a lot of older people so he learned out of necessity, pretty sure the 24 yr old can’t (I’ll ask him).

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MedievalMousie@reddit

Mine can- my oldest is 27 and learned it in school. He loved his penmanship workbook so much that we bought more, and eventually he got into calligraphy. His younger brothers, 24 and 21, did not learn it in school, but in the way of annoying and slightly competitive younger siblings, had to be into what he was into. Youngest was already using cursive in first grade and we got called into a meeting with his very frustrated teacher about it. *whistles* Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you…

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MaximumJones@reddit

Of course they can. They can read and write it.

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Early-Tourist-8840@reddit

Absolutely. May have kids of their own now, but every summer was penmanship and keyboarding classes while school was out.

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IranticBehaviour@reddit

The oldest started school in the early 90s, and can read and write cursive. The younger kids that started in the late 90s into the late 00s, nope. They learned printing and keyboarding.

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Any_Pudding_1812@reddit

i was scanning old photos recently and found my daughters school work I boarded. she learned it at school. she is 32 this year.

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Business_Swan8209@reddit

Yes. She is 29 and has an IB and 2 BA's. It was expected. However, her writing style is a mash-up between cursive and printing (just like old Mom) LOL

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