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Comment by IceMetalPunk | Hacker News Reader

Fun (or maybe not-so-fun) fact: my 15-year-old nephew recently had to sign a document for some volunteer work, and he didn't know how. Apparently, schools no longer teach cursive, not even enough for kids to learn how to sign their own names for legal documents. The secretary was just like, "Yeah, we get that a lot; he can just print his name instead, that's fine."

I've always had shitty handwriting, and when I was in first grade, my teacher told my mom, "Don't worry about it; when he grows up, he'll probably be typing everything anyway." Turns out that was far more accurate and generalizable than we knew.

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Given my age, I learned cursive in school, and spent my college years taking handwritten notes. My cursive was pretty terrible, much like my father's. However, he spent years working as a draftsman, and then as an estimator (before the days of personal computers), so his printing was very similar to the form described in the linked article. So, I taught myself to write in the same form. I still handwrite a lot (journalling, drafts of papers), because I find it easier to "think out loud" with a pencil in my hand.

It's funny how some people think their signature must be legible, or the wonder if they have to include their middle initial just because the printed version of their name on some document does. I believe a signature can be just about any symbol (although hopefully more complex than the "X" which is legally acceptable) which the signer can reliably re-create.

"The traditional function of a signature is to permanently affix to a document a person's uniquely personal, undeniable self-identification as physical evidence of that person's personal witness and certification of the content of all, or a specified part, of the document."[0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature

Part of the reason I'm so cynical about the teaching profession is that I had a string of two or three elementary teachers who insisted that cursive was the only acceptable method of handwriting in educational settings. Immediately after—and for every single other teacher or professor—no one cared whether the letters were connected or block-printed so long as they were legible.

The other reason was the far-longer string of "you had better shape up now because if you don't get your act together, you'll never pass next year" and then continually passing next year with flying colors.

I think it would make me more cynical about teaching if teachers all agreed. Teachers have different opinions that evolve over time because they're trying to figure out the best way to teach. Static unanimity could would only happen if it was pursued for its own sake, to make the profession more comfortable and to avoid questions of skill and credibility.

I have ditched cursive for block printing, but it is an annoyance because I'm much slower that way. Even though I sit at a keyboard ten hours a day, better handwriting ability would be a noticeable asset for me. Still, I can't blame the teachers who taught me in elementary school, because none of them could make the individual choice to teach me a different cursive system, just like I can't make the individual choice to start writing code in a different language at my company.

It's weird that a signature is expected to be in cursive in so many places anyway. It's not like cursive is some unforgeable method whereas as printed writing looks exactly the same no matter who writes it.

Hell, nobody even cares what it says, so my "signature" is just a scribble that is somewhat consistent.

> I've always had shitty handwriting, and when I was in first grade, my teacher told my mom, "Don't worry about it; when he grows up, he'll probably be typing everything anyway." Turns out that was far more accurate and generalizable than we knew.

My third grade teacher told my mom not to worry about my (awful) handwriting, "he'll have a secretary." Which probably makes me a bit older than you. I retroactively blame my 1st grade teacher who forbid me from writing my name in cursive; it was a 1/2/3 combo class, and she said she had a hard time figuring out if work was mine or the other person with my first name who was in second or third grade and expected to write in cursive. It might have been better for me to just write my last initial or full last name. Oh well.

He never wrote own name? I would expect him writing his own name the way he normally writes it to be "signature" - regardless of font.

I just bought a house, and signing all the mortgage docs, they told me I had to sign my name exactly as it appears on the document: First Middle Last. My signature, the one that is most personal, recognizable, and ubiquitous to me, is a quick scribble that kind of includes the first letter of my first name, then some flairs of loops and things. Having to laboriously write out my full name in script was a giant pain in the ass. I could not repeat the same signature twice. In many cases I couldn't remember how to write the capital cursive letter for my middle and last name.

TL;DR: I am 38 and completely sympathize with your nephew. I can't sign my name either.

It sounds to me that such requirement beats the whole purpose of the signature - to identify it was actually you signing the document.

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