now why did the beginners font work but not the cursive??

I really love the cursive way of writing .. it led to me learning to do calligraphy
ultimately.

Exactly Carl ...

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@*mrgrizz* wrote:

that raises a very valid point.

i had never thought of the signature.

 

when i was at school it was called running writing

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It is not running writing now.  It is quite different.  Now the lines are not "gone over" again and again.

my daughter has trouble reading the letters her grandmother sends her I always have to help her

a friends dad got a job based solely on his hand writing.

not on the application or resume.

they told him they were impressed by the quality of his penmanship and the detail and care taken to write it.

they were looking for someone with a eye for detail

Crikey,what on earth made you think I was suggesting your kids didn't have to work hard and practice diligently to obtain good marks in maths?

I have a natural gift for creative writing, I still had to work my butt off and practice for  years before I managed to get anything published - that didn't lead me to assum, though, that anyone who was prepared to put in the hard work could acheive the same result. In school I also worked my butt of at art and practised drawing till I had tears of frustration running down my face - I was still lousy at it. And don't even get me started on music!

There is a well known story concerning the artis,t Giotto, auditioning for an important commission. He demonstrated his skill and   won the job by  drawing a perfect circle freehand. I imagine he also  practiced very hard, but are we to assume from his acheivement that all draftsmen should learn their skills without the aid of a compass, set square or ruler?

Simple repetitive arithmatic can certainly be calculated very quickly and  there are probably mathematicians who can rattle off obscure percentages or the cube root of every number from 10 to 1000000 off the top of their heads, but I suspect most people  would take a fair while  to calculate something like 13.7% of 99796  if they had never been taught how to use a calculator.

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@crikey*mate wrote:

When my eldest was in grade 9, he had to do some algebra test and use an Fx82 calculator (calculator skills are actually a part of the curriculum!). He didn't use calculators at all (mainly because he keeps losing them), so didn't on this test.

He got all of the answers correct in 20 minutes (they were allowed 40). His teacher failed him. She then called me up to the school horrified that my kid was failing Math. When I pointed out that he could do math, he had gotten every sum correct, her reply was "if he can't use a calculator he will never be able to do calculus"... I responded that Isaac Newton invented calculus and all he had was an abacus.

 

 

 

If part of the examination was to demonstrate that he knows how to use a calculator and he didn't, of course he would have failed. The same thing happens in other areas, sewing as an example. If part of the test/assignment is to make a garment using a sewing machine, a handsewn item (no matter how superior the french seams and hemstitching are) will not fulfill the requirements. 

 

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