Can you read cursive? It's a superpower the National Archives is looking for

[Sanders]

If you can read cursive, the National Archives would like a word.

Or a few million. More than 200 years worth of U.S. documents need transcribing (or at least classifying) and the vast majority from the Revolutionary War era are handwritten in cursive – requiring people who know the flowing, looped form of penmanship.

“Reading cursive is a superpower,” said Suzanne Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog in Washington, D.C.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/12/national-archives-needs-citizen-archivists-cursive/77493951007/

[baboon]

I can read some peoples cursive but there are many I'd not attempt.

[4thIDvet]

Ah hell we have a group of us old vets hang around the keg here on weekends and a hell of a lot of cursing goes on. Where is this place hell we will help them.

[Pogo]

My wife wrote perfect cursive. Mine looks like it was written by a drunk 6 year old.

[twin50]

I was floored months ago when my wife and I were having a conversation and this topic came up and she told me how some of her nieces and nephews some in their early 20's did not know how to read cursive. I imagine my expression could have won some sort of prize.

[aviator]

Hand writing is becoming obsolete. Ban computers and cell phones.

[RedOak]

At certain times, my signature looks like it was written by a doctor, especially after driving somewhere.

[Sanders]

I was forced to practice pages and pages of handwriting when I was a youngster. It didn't take. Like Pogo, my handwriting looks like a drunk 6 yr. old's.

But, a smart person with vision could use this opportunity to do something for them and their posterity with these "translations".

[rto]

I learned to read and write cursive in the second grade. When I send a card or a note to someone I write in cursive.
When my sister and I were working on our genealogy any records that were not printed in a book were handwritten in cursive such as Census records, family Bibles, etc.

[Johnny]

I remember writing cursive in grade school. At first we learned how to print letters and then strung them together to form words. One day I watched my Dad as he was writing. I noticed he was PRINTING his letters. He had beautiful handwriting. I remember making the decision to start printing myself without asking permission. I thought for sure I'd get in some trouble with my teachers, but not a word was spoken.

My grandmother lived till age 102. She wrote cursive her whole life. I still have some of the stuff she wrote. How anyone could NOT read cursive is beyond me.

[mrkalashnikov]

I wrote in pretty decent cursive until I got in my 20's and entered the work force. At my first company out of school they wanted all orders, memos, & other business stuff printed. After so many decades away from it mine looks like chicken scratching.

Cursive hasn't been taught in grade schools around here for many years now.

[Pogo]

The reason my cursive is so bad is because I'm left handed. Cursive was created for right handed prople.

[rto]

The reason my cursive is so bad is because I'm left handed. Cursive was created for right handed prople.

I am left handed also and my teacher made us slant our letters to the right. So in order to do that I had to place my hand over what I was writing which sometimes caused me to smear the wet ink with the side of my hand. If I place my hand under what I am writing the letters slant to the left which was verboten with Ms. Burns, my 2nd grade teacher.

[Sanders]

The reason my cursive is so bad is because I'm left handed. Cursive was created for right handed prople.

I have no excuse. I'm just a bad writer.