General Forum

Not just a US thing, we asked our son's teacher when they would begin cursive writing in elementry and she asked us "why?" I was stunned, further into the conversation she expalined that they all use iPads anyways so there is no need for it. =O

Heck anymore I sign more stuff on a screen with my finger than paper and pen and that is totally illegable. 

This one ranks right up there also.....

As a retired school administrator and former teacher, I can vouch for schools not teaching cursive. It's now optional - and as I interpreted "optional" when I first went to college straight from high school, it meant for me to "not participate". They teach handwriting in early elementary (through first grade) and that's it. 

But as to this guy's signature, I'm okay with it as long as it's consistent whenever he signs. I say that because my signature ceased being legible decades ago, but it's similar everytime and all you can identify is a JMtz, except on my tax returns where my wife (an accountant) demands it be legible and as it's printed on the front.

Nice pulls, though. The closest I'd gotten was buying three packs of 1986 Topps football and pulling two Jerry Rice RCs.

Regarfing cursive writing - I can also confirm that in Canada (as my wife is an elementary school teacher), it was taken out of the curriculum a number of years ago, when they changed how they "teach" printing. The structure of their being a "right" way to print was changed to a more open process of letting the children see the letters and shapes and figure out what works best for them in being able to print letters themselves because every child learns differently. The same gopes with spelling where, through grade 1 it didn't matter, in grade 2 onward, it begins to matter, but they don't do spelling lists or drills.

Sorry for the tangent....

Anyway, with cursive, it's not even optional to teach - it isn't in the curriculum, and there isn't time in the school year to go have the time to properly cover everything needed, ensuring all students "get it" and have cursive taught as well. The excuse being, not surprisingly, kids today will hardly every be writing by hand anyway, and since everything on computer is print (not cursib), there is no use for cursive. As pointed out though, it is going to be interesting for legal contracts, signing tax returns, and other forms (let alone sports cards), what people are going to do - just print their names? You would think forgery would become a wee bit easier in that case, if nothing else. 

J'Mon is a pretty nice guy from what I've seen on his post game interviews and that when he was in college.  Off the top of my head I can't remember if I personally met him or got his autograph, but I have seen his signature around a few times and this is roughly how he writes it, but I thought he usually wrote it a little bit longer, but I'm sure singing little stickers that aren't connected to people asking for them in person you are probably tempted to fly right through fulfilling the contract more than being neat.  I hope he has good NFL career, but since I haven't kept up on Mizzou as much as I had in previous years, I actually forgot he graduated.

As for writing cursive, I remember doing it when I was younger and while I don't much these days, it still saddens me kids today don't learn how to do it for no other reason than to read it and to sign their name.  I guess soon it won't matter since technology won't make you have a need for it much longer though.  I will say athlete's signatures don't bother me much in situations like these but if I was in person it would feel somewhat like a brush off.  Though I'd say their signatures are nicer than doctor's signatures about 99% of the time.

Yup someday we will get all excited for pulling a thumbprint or a retina scan on a card!! Woo hoo. =/

Yup its pathetic that my son will need to print his name on everything, his mama has tried to teach him his name at least and we all know how that goes over with an 8 year old. LOL Thank god his name starts with an X ............. seriously!!! =D

WWE women wrestlers do the kiss cards with the lipstick. I guess that's close to the thumbprint.  I know there are cards with hair from historical figures too.

Okay... I have to reply again. The lack of "cursive knowledge" shouldn't excuse someone from having an actual signature. The funny thing about most of the "sigs" that are complained about in sports AU's are that they have a resemblance to cursive writing. They are mostly loops and swoopes and that is the basis of most cursive letters. While I learned Print writing early and Cursive writing later on, I also learned Block writing in High School while taking a Drafting Class (aka. Architecture). Block Writing is taught to make sure that everyone seeing it can easily read it. It is more steady and less interpretive than any form of writing. When you draw blueprints for a building, everyone needs to know how to read it the same way and the letters/numbers must represent that. I've used that style more in my life than print and cursive combined. Anything I write that contains numbers, follows the Block Writing method (such as my checkbook register, time cards and tax returns). Block-style numbers and all-capital letters are the main stamp for those characters.

My current signature has many of those attributes, but none of the actual characters of cursive, script or block. My signature evolved over many years from an easily-readable print, to a still easy-to-read cursive (or script) signature, to a mix and then to the currently unreadable scribble. But my "scribble" is still way more than just a single letter and a mark. My signature has a stylized A at the beginning and a semi-cursive S to start my last name. The rest is just the evolution of me signing my name over the years and is mostly scribble. BUT, I am 40 years old and these lazy AU's are from a bunch of teenagers to low-20-year-olds. It just seems like these kids either can't spell their own name, are too lazy to do it, or just don't care b/c they still get paid for a little scribble on a card or sticker.

In the end, I would expect a scribble from a long-time veteran who has signed his name thousands of times just for fans at games and appearances. I don't want to accept that from someone just out of college, especially if they were only there for one year. You haven't signed enough AU's to get so lazy as to sign a single letter! NASCAR HOFer Mark Martin STILL signs his full name in script/cursive after 30 years of signing his name for fans at the track and for card companies. AND it is completely readable.

I still can't believe that no one so far has brought up former NFL player Vernand Morency. I believe I spelled that right, but his signature many years ago was the first one that I remember bringing up this conversation on any site about crappy signatures. Look up any of his AU's. He pretty much just signed a V with a straight line after it.