America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy

Book Description

"Be prepared for a mind-opening experience."
-The Christian Century

"Highly readable; excellent for students. . . . A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works."
-Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"America Beyond Capitalism comes at a critical time in our history-when we all know our system isn't working but we are not sure what can be done about it. This book takes us outside the confines of orthodox thinking, imagines a new way of living together, and then brings that vision back into reality with a set of eminently practical ideas that promise a truly democratic society."
-Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"Succeeds brilliantly in taking the Jeffersonian spirit into the last bastion of privilege in America, offering workable solutions for making the American economy one that is truly of, by, and for the people."
-Jeremy Rifkin, author of The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream

"The kind of careful, well-researched, and practical alternative progressives have been seeking. And it's more-visionary, hopeful, even inspirational. I highly recommend it."
-Juliet Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need

"A compelling and convincing story of the future."
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

Customer Reviews:

Not particularly rousing or transforming.......2007-07-11

The author is concerned that at this point in our history our ideals of liberty, equality, and democracy have been seriously eroding as never before. By far the most relevant development given by the author is the growing concentration of wealth in the US among the richest 1 percent and thereby their immense power to control the political-economic system. In this highly tilted environment, traditional popular political approaches are largely ineffective - systemic changes are needed. However, the author's proposals scarcely go "beyond capitalism," being reformist at best, and do little to enhance the little "d" democracy that is so important in a democracy.

Because wealth-holding is so central in our society, the author proposes changes in forms of ownership and the distribution of capital. He gives examples of ownership by municipalities, non-profits, and other non-government entities mostly in the areas of low-income housing and utility ownership, none of which are particularly economically transforming to the citizenry. He suggests that ESOPs are empowering to workers, yet he readily admits that most ESOPs do not even have voting rights. There have always been worker cooperatives and direct worker ownership in the US, but hardly at the level of being a countervailing force to huge for-profit corporations owned by anonymous stockholders. His suggestions to decentralize the US into regional political entities, like virtually all of his proposals, do not enhance participation for citizens.

The author notes that major crises in this nation, such as the Great Depression or WWII, have spurred the most profound changes. The author hints at the fact that it may well be the excesses of elites and corporations that will generate the next significant political-economic changes. Forces of globalization, the cheap labor afforded by immigration, growing perceptions of unreasonable inequality, a health care industry increasingly at odds with the health of the American public, the diminishment and jeopardization of retirement income, and perpetual war - all may well combine to stimulate profound changes. As the author acknowledges, it is likely that the situation may have to get worse before action is taken.

The book, though not particularly long, manages to be repetitious and tedious with excessive cataloging of various agencies, programs, and advocates. The book is hardly a far left treatise. Capitalism may get a strong rebuke, but that is the extent of it. His vaguely presented schemes to redistribute wealth are highly bureaucratic, bypassing worker control. Overall this book is a disappointment in its lack of specific suggestions for empowering citizens in all areas, public and private.

book for school.......2007-05-16

I bought this book for a class at college. I am really tired of this propoganda. I do not agree with the viewpoints.

Required reading????.......2006-09-21

The guy makes his liberal points like gangbusters. But why on earth is this type of material required reading in several colleges without an equally substantial pro-capitalist book to counter it?
Nowhere else in society are young people exposed to such raw indoctrination as they are in America's college campuses. Kids need to learn to think for themselves, not just repeat the rantings of their instructors.

The View from the Far Left.......2006-05-02

This book is an excellent summary of the thinking of the left wing of the Democratic party. He brings forth a good collection of ways that he sees our society declining. I believe the thing he laments most is that the rich are rich. From this he goes on to saying that the standard work week in the US should be shorter, there should be universal health care, the whole litany of the issues of the far left.

While many of us think that the far right wing has gone too far, the far left likewise has little appeal.

Another point that bothers me is that problems I forsee being the biggest problems that the country faces, he doesn't mention at all. For instance, we are at about the peak of oil production in the world and developing countries, especially China and India have increased their demand for oil, and the total production of oil is going to go down in the next few years.

Mr. Alperovitz is a Democratic Party activist. He doesn't though address what the Democratics need to do to be able to win on a national level. The old Democratic coalition of minorities, labor, women, the big Eastern political machines no longer has the pull it had. If he really wants to change things, how does he propose for the Democrats to counter the movement in our country to the South and West. Hint: When Kerry and Edwards left the campaign trail for a couple of days to go vote on a gun control measure they wrote off the South and West just to back up the left wing of their party.

I give the book five stars because it so clearly illustrates the feelings of the far left. As a practical plan for the future, it wouldn't rate that high.

Five Stars for Originality and Scholarship, Three for the Quality of Writing.......2005-11-12

I give this book five stars for orginality and scholarship and three for the quality of the writing.

The ideas presented here hold the key to future progressive political success. Unfortunately, most political activists on the Left are not aware of the rich history of democratic localism that progressives can draw on to win a progressive governing majority. This book is the antidote to this lack of awareness. By studying "America Beyond Capitalism" progressive thinkers and activists can learn how to develop popular policies that will earn the trust of the American electorate.

However, the quality of writing leaves much to be desired. The writing style too frequently degenerates into tiring catalogues of examples that could be easily summarized, allowing the curious reader to more easily absorb the main theme, while still having the option of researching examples by looking at the original sources cited. This is why I give it only three stars for the quality of the writing.

Overall, I give this book four stars and I highly recommend it to any progressive who is seriously interested in building a progressive governing majority in the 21st century.

America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book Review) : An article from: International Journal on World Peace

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America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book Review) : An article from: International Journal on World Peace
Michael True
Manufacturer: Professors World Peace Academy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from International Journal on World Peace, published by Professors World Peace Academy on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1063 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book Review)
Author: Michael True
Publication: International Journal on World Peace (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Professors World Peace Academy
Volume: 22 Issue: 1 Page: 83(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Common wealth.(Book Review): An article from: Sojourners Magazine

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Common wealth.(Book Review): An article from: Sojourners Magazine
Bob Hulteen
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Sojourners Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2005. The length of the article is 939 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Common wealth.(Book Review)
Author: Bob Hulteen
Publication: Sojourners Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 34 Issue: 6 Page: 45(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Gar Alperovitz. America beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book review) : An article from: Utopian Studies

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Gar Alperovitz. America beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book review) : An article from: Utopian Studies
Susan Allen
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Utopian Studies, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1040 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Gar Alperovitz. America beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.(Book review)
Author: Susan Allen
Publication: Utopian Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Page: 496(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

With forty well structured and easy to follow topics to choose from, each workbook has a wide range of case studies, questions and activities to meet both an individual or organization's training needs. Whether studying for an ILM qualification or looking to enhance the skills of your employees, Super Series provides essential solutions, frameworks and techniques to support management and leadership development.

* Developed by the ILM to support their Level 3 Introductory Certificate and Certificate in First Line Management
* Well-structured and easy to follow
* Fully revised and updated

Product Description

In the disastrous years before and during the Second World War, when confidence in a harmonious future was as difficult as it was crucial for spiritual survival, two German artists in exile wrote what would become their late masterpieces. The composer Paul Hindemith conceived an opera on the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler s mature life and theories, The Harmony of the World; the poet and novelist Hermann Hesse wrote a complex literary collage, The Glass Bead Game. Both works address the topic of universal harmony in the fabric of creation and culture, as well as the urgent problem of how such harmony can heal the spiritual, mental, and emotional developments of individuals and of society at large. The two quests are mirrored into circumstances that are almost equidistant from the mid-20th-century period in which their stories are being told Hindemith s opera centers on an outstanding intellectual in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, while Hesse s work focuses on this intellectual s counterpart projected into a fictional world of the early 23rd century. In both cases, the quest for harmony and truthful proportion manifests at all levels of the stories told and of the works telling them. Siglind Bruhn s thought-provoking interdisciplinary study is organized along the lines of the seven areas in which scholars of the Pythagorean tradition from Plato to Kepler and beyond found universal harmony paradigmatically realized music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (the quadrivium of the medieval liberal arts) complemented by metaphysics, psychology, and art.

Customer Reviews:

A contemplative discussion of the connections between music study, world cultures, and cosmology.......2006-01-06

Musicologist, concert pianist, and interdisciplinary scholar Siglind Bruhn presents The Musical Order Of The World: Kepler, Hesse, Hindemith, a contemplative discussion of the connections between music study, world cultures, and cosmology, particularly as researched by great scientific minds. Covering topics from "Music's Moral Power in Ancient China and Hesse's Castalia" to "The Eternal Realm of Numerical Relations", to an extremely close reading of Kepler's poetry concerning the meaning of death. The Musical Order Of The World is a thoughtful and perfectly attuned blend of advanced music study, ground-breaking scholarship, and metaphysical awareness.

Book Description

Together with her previous book Ann Arbor, renowned photographer Cynthia Davis offers a look at the world unlike any other. Davis, a photographer with the soul of a painter, turns her artist's eye on Saugatuck-Douglas in these remarkable hand-altered Polaroid photographs.

Saugatuck and Douglas are known to almost everyone in Michigan and many visitors from Chicagoland and neighboring states as quaint artist communities that are home to shops, galleries, B&Bs, and interesting establishments such as Hoopdee Scootee, Loaf and Mug, Kilwin's, Old Post Office Shop, and the Kirby House.

Davis captures these Michigan landmarks in her unique pictures, which she creates by manipulating the gel-like chemicals in Polaroid photographs while they're still developing. This imbues her work with a dreamlike quality, somewhere between photorealism and impressionist painting.

Anyone who has visited Michigan's west coast will love Davis's evocative and colorful renditions of these picturesque towns.

Book Description

This exciting new twist on the hugely successful For Dummies® series presents a classic title sure to be appreciated by anyone who's trying to learn golf or improve his or her game. The authors, both noted golf commentators, provide a comprehensive guide to all elements of the sport, from proper stance to aiming, swinging, and scoring. They discuss special shots, conditions, and considerations, accompanied by explicit illustrations with clear, concise captions.

Average customer rating:

Not for us.

Just enough substance, lots of overhead

Going to buy one for myself

A Great Practical Guide to Improved Handwriting

Great book

Write Now: The Complete Program for Better Handwriting
Barbara Getty
Manufacturer: Continuing Education Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Teach Yourself Better Handwriting

Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life!

Daily Handwriting Practice: Contemporary Cursive

Italic Letters: Calligraphy and Handwriting

The Art of the Handwritten Note: A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communication

ASIN: 0876781180
Release Date: 2005-03-15

Book Description

It's so natural and easy, anyone can achieve elegant, legible handwriting.

Write more legibly…
These simple, slightly sloped letters were designed for both legibility and speed. Italic is a fast, efficient, and practical writing style that eliminates the loops and flourishes of conventional handwriting.

Italic handwriting is easy and natural…
Italic is a modern handwriting system based on l6th century letterforms that are highly suited to rapid and legible writing. Rhythmic patterns of sloped lines and elliptical shapes follow the natural movement of the hand. These handsome letterforms are as easy to write as they are to read.

Make a positive impression…
Your handwriting says a lot about you. Italic writing commands respect and makes a lasting statement about your style and competence.

Send handwritten notes you can be proud of…
Friends and business associates will appreciate receiving legible and distinctive handwritten messages.

No more hand cramps or broken pencil points… New in this completely handwritten, revised edition of Write Now, is an ergonomically efficient alternative pen hold, offering relief to those individuals who tend to grasp their writing instrument too tightly.

Quick and easy reference… New supplementary section with a complete review of basic and cursive italic and capitals.

This natural and easy handwriting style is a delight for both the writer and the reader.

Customer Reviews:

Not for us........2007-07-18

Deadly dull and uninspiring. I am not a fan of the italicized printing that is used and do not aspire to emulate their model. Am throwing this fish back in the water for a refund. How did it manage to get 4-5 stars????

Just enough substance, lots of overhead.......2007-07-10

This book claims to improve your handwriting by providing excercises. This is actually the case. After going through a number of excercises (tracing and reproducing basic shapes and letters), my writing seemed to improve. However, from the 96 pages in the book, only pages 14-50 contain the actual excersises, the bulk of the book is formed by how our script developed, too many pages highlighting improvements of other book users, how to address an envelope etc.

All in all I think the amount of actual info you need to improve handwriting is too small for the price of the book. For people interested in this subject, go to http://briem.ismennt.is/4/4.1.1a/4.1.1.1.quick.htm and find lots of excercises to learn write in Italic. Definitely more than you will get via this book, and its free!

Going to buy one for myself.......2007-06-27

I had a student who wanted to improve her handwriting, and after some hunting I settled on this. When I received it, I was really impressed. The book is clear and well organized. Anyone could improve their handwriting with this book. I am often complimented on my handwriting, but I have often been dissatisfied with it. Just looking over the instructions in this book helped me quite a bit. I am planning to pick up another copy to keep.

A Great Practical Guide to Improved Handwriting.......2007-05-27

After a two page preface, this book gets right down to business. There is a quick introduction to the terminology used in the book followed by 2 pages of advice on writing tools and how to sit, hold the pen, and position the page. That is followed by a half page on the six essential characteristics of handwriting: shape, stroke sequence, size, slope, spacing, and speed.

This is first and foremost a workbook. You see the letters, trace the letters, and then copy the letters. Then you progress to copying sentences and full paragraphs. There isn't much in the way of theory here. Getty and Dubay show you what to do and then you practice. Repeat the same process for cursive and finally for edged italic.

Interspersed throughout are interesting asides about the historical development of writing as well as tips for practicing your own.

The overall focus is on ease of writing and reading, not on your ability to copy exactly the letterforms they have written. They recognize and discuss differences in size, spacing, slope, and speed. It is, after all, _your_ handwriting.

The most useful pages for me have been the overview page and the blank practice pages. The overview page shows how to write every letter, both capital and lower case, both in printing and cursive, all on one page. It is the page I open to when practicing. The practice pages with dotted lines for height of capitals and length of descenders have helped me develop a consistent width and height. I photocopy 5 every week and then fill a maximum of one page per night. This spreads out my practice time so I don't get burned out or bored with it.

I've had the book for about a month now and the improvement has been dramatic despite dedicating only a few hours a week to it. Though my writing has always been legible, it was messy and inconsistent chicken scratch. No longer. It is now smooth and even; and the italic style really stands out in comparison to other people's handwriting. The better my writing gets, the more I want to write.

I am very satisfied with my purchase. Considering how much I will write over my lifetime, this book is a bargain. Thanks to Amazon for carrying it. Neither B&N nor Borders do.

Great book.......2007-03-23

This book is excellent. It re-teaches adults how to write legibly, just the way our teachers did when we were children. Numerous excercises and frequent practice will have your handwriting fixed in no-time!

Write Now: A Complete Self-teaching Program for Better Handwriting

Average customer rating:

it does work
opinions on handwriting should follow fact, not falsehood
Getty-Dubay Italic best for boys
Another printing!
Penmanship Charlatans

Write Now: A Complete Self-teaching Program for Better Handwriting
Barbara Getty , and Inga Dubay
Manufacturer: Continuing Education Pr. Portland State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0876780893

Book Description

Write Now is a comprehensive one-volume program that teaches you to develop clean, elegant, legible handwriting, even for those who have always had difficulty with their penmanship. Write Now is being used nationally by the authors to teach seminars to physicians and medical professionals on how to write legibly. It incorporates the italic style which was developed in Europe about five hundred years ago as a practical and efficient style for everyday use, and is once again gaining popularity in schools worldwide.

The italic style in Write Now uses simple, aesthetic forms that are natural and rhythmic, and satisfy the need for both legibility and speed. It contains clear instruction with numerous examples and requires no special equipment - a regular pen or pencil will do. The book is designed to lie flat when open to make writing in it easier, and includes blank, ruled pages in the back that can be reproduced for extra practice.

Most of the styles taught in schools were developed in the 19th century and were designed using the ornamental copperplate engraving of that era as their basis. They abound with loops and flourishes and an extreme letter slope. Because of the rigors involved in mastering these shapes, it is often difficult to read. Italic avoids many of the pitfalls that cause illegibility, even when written in a hurry. There are no loops - only the basic letterform is used, with a slight, unexaggerated slope, making it extremely easy to learn and read. Italic handwriting encourages personal style without compromising legibility.

Achieving a distinctive, readable hand is surprisingly easy and can be mastered in as little as fifteen minutes a day. You'll find Write Now easy to follow and full of step-by-step guidance and tips.

Customer Reviews:

it does work.......2006-03-20

I used this book and in 13 days I saw a great deal of improvement in my hand writing

opinions on handwriting should follow fact, not falsehood.......2006-03-06

All people have a right to their own opinions on handwriting, Those opinions need to follow fact, not falsehood. Even though I love, use, and teach Italic with this book and others like it (you notice I gave it five stars), I do agree with Mr. Harvey that his teachers made a big mistake if they said what he remembers them saying.

No teacher should misinform students about the legal acceptability of a handwriting style. If one considers a handwriting system "snake oil" because some teachers don't know their subject well enough to avoid misinformation, then one must likewise call conventional cursive instruction "snake oil" because elementary schoolteachers in most cursive programs routinely misinform students that one cannot legally sign a check or other document unless one uses cursive.
(Though many people hold that belief, attorneys have informed me that in fact no law requires cursive for signatures on checks or anywhere else.)

Mr. Harvey's Chicago teachers acted just as badly as his teachers in Redmond. Shock, repulsion, and ridicule offered in response to
handwriting will, indeed, scar the writer: whatever handwriting program he or she has learned. If young Jake's family had moved in the opposite direction - from Chicago to Redmond - at least some teachers and students in his new school would probably have treated him just as despicably and would have left him feeling just as bad about having acquired a conventional cursive script as he in fact feels about once having acquired cursive Italic.
Schoolchildren in particular will abuse others (particularly new students) for any reason or none: ought we then to judge a curriculum by the taunts of children?

Re:
"I was ridiculed by my classmates for writing like a 'baby', and being
'illiterate.' ... "
I've never known a baby or an illiterate who could write in any kind
of handwriting.

Re:
" ... I had to learn how to write, all over again."
If young Harvey had moved to another country instead of to another state, he would have had to learn to write (and to speak) all over again. No teacher worth her chalk-dust would have felt "shocked and repulsed" by needing to teach him to do this.
If he had moved to Greece instead of to Illinois, would he regret that he had learned English before learning Greek? Would he deem his previous language "snake oil" as he deems his previous handwriting?

(And I do have to wonder: What did Jake Harvey's parents think of the
whole thing? What he has written reads as if he had to fight his scribal
battles alone. If his parents stood idly by, then they must accept at least
some responsibility for the scars he blames on a handwriting textbook.)

Re:
"To this day, a few scars remain. Some of the capital letters I still write in the Italic way. I do not loop some of my lower case letters."
Mr. Harvey should take courage from the research done in 1998 by handwriting/literacy researcher Steve Graham at Vanderbilt University. This research shows that people who avoid lower-case letter loops and conventional cursive-style capitals (which Italic also avoids) write faster and more legibly than those who follow "cursive writing" styles in their entirety.

Re:
"I encourage you to look at a sample of Cursive Italic writing before
you try this, although you probably won't have much luck searching for
this dead style on the internet."
Google thinks otherwise.
Searching for "cursive italic" yielded a Getty-Dubay web-page as the
first result, and a page of cursive Italic writing-samples as the
second result, on the first page of Google hits. So much for deadness.
I printed out those samples today, and showed them to some accomplished cursive writers. They liked what they saw. A number of them (including two schoolteachers) said they want to write that way too, and declared that they will order the book.

Re:
"It looks positively childish. It is printed letters randomly connected by serifs [i.e., joins] in awkward places."
If Mr. Harvey finds the connections "random," then he didn't pay much attention to his Italic lessons back in Redmond.
I admit that some (not all) users of Italic or other handwriting programs find some (not all) of the connections awkward. Italic handwriting programs that I know of (unlike conventional handwriting programs in USA classrooms during the 1980s or now) permit omitting those joins that feel awkward to a given writer.
If young Harvey or his Redmond teacher did not take advantage of the
opportunity to omit joins "in awkward places" when using Getty-Dubay, they had the opportunity nevertheless; one cannot blame a textbook for providing advice and suggestions that one ignores.

Re:
"When I learned to write normal cursive, I couldn't believe how natural and free-flowing it was. Cursive Italic requires you to stop and lift your pen to add unnatural serifs [joins?], despite the author's claims."

I trust that Mr. Harvey writes legibly as well as "naturally." A great deal of the "natural, free-flowing" cursive handwriting out there defies any attempt to read it.
If Mr. Harvey finds conventional cursive so "natural and free-flowing," why doesn't he write entirely in that way? Why does he still have bits of Italic in his handwriting, if he finds Italic so much harder to do than what he learned later?

What Mr. Harvey says about having to "stop and lift your pen" to add
serifs or joins confirms my opinion that he may have had a rather poor
teacher! Perhaps this could account, at least in part, for his Chicago
schoolmates' and teachers' shock and revulsion.
If he had written his Italic as well as everyone else I've seen who had this program either in childhood or later on, I doubt that his writing would have
appeared babyish or illiterate to teachers and schoolmates in Chicago or anywhere else. Google the phrase "cursive italic" and you will find numerous samples that appear (to me and to others, as I've said) far from babyish.
Certainly the teachers might have felt a need to teach him a new style, if the school or district required one - but learning a new style does not have to mean despising the old.

Re:
"With regular handwriting, you only stop to cross t's and dot i's (which Cursive Italic does not eliminate)."
Good for Chicago, if the cursive that Jake Harvey learned there lets you stop to cross "t"s and dot "i"s in the manner that Italic handwriting does not eliminate (namely: stopping within the word to cross and dot). Most people still teaching cursive (after some fashion) in the USA forbid stopping to cross and dot, requiring writers instead to go backwards after finishing the word in order to crosseach "t" and "x," dot each "i" and "j" well after writing
these letters, before one can finally go forward to reach the place where the next word will begin.

Mr. Harvey closes by warning us to avoid Italic. I wish he had explained how other people reviewing this book have ended up with good, rather than bad, handwriting from such "snake oil" as he calls it.

Getty-Dubay Italic best for boys.......2006-03-06

I have five sons. The only one of the older ones who never uses joined-up writing is the one to whom I taught looped cursive, before I learned of italic. The other 4 learned Italic through the Getty-Dubay series and are often complimented on their nice penhand.
A K-9 charter school we started here in the Rocky Mountain states finally switched over to Getty-Dubay Italic and the improvement in the children's penhand has been noticed by everyone.
Looped cursive programs do not offer the content and historical background that the G-D series does. In every book children learn about the history of letters, learn about grammar, poetry, history, geography. It is a very complete program and also VERY FAIRLY priced. I usually have my sons do a book more than once and it is affordable to do that as each book is less than $7.
Most children create a form of italic on their own, and abandon looped cursive methods as soon as they are allowed to. It makes sense to teach them the real thing - a single program, an italic method that will leave them with good printing and legible joined letters.
The gentleman who complained about being abused by teachers for his penmanship was really someone who had bad teachers. . . not someone who was taught a bad penmanship method!!!!! Bad, stupid teachers don't make a program or system bad.

Get just one of these books (book E, F, G) and review it yourself.

Another printing!.......2005-07-28

FYI, this print is currently not available from Amazon. Amazon *does* have another print of this book - just re-search on the same title, and look for the other printing with a publish date of March 2005 (and a bit less attractive cover, IMHO!).

I've heard this book is great, but haven't yet seen it. If my opinion is different after my book comes in, then I'll come back and update this review (or write a new one on the new print).

Penmanship Charlatans.......2005-02-11

I am a victim of the Getty-Dubay method. This system, what I call the metric system of handwriting, was forced upon me as a grade schooler, back in the mid 80's.

The school I attended, Redmond Elementary in Redmond, WA had adopted this handwriting system. We were told that this was the system every school in the country was switching to. They even went so far as to say that one day, you would not be allowed to sign a check if it was not done in Cursive Italic.

We moved to Chicago in 1989. The teachers in my new school were shocked and repulsed by my handwriting. "But, it's CURSIVE ITALIC!" I would tell them. They had never heard of it. I was ridiculed by my classmates for writing like a "baby", and being "illiterate".

My teachers would not allow me to continue writing in this manner. I was threatened with remedial penmanship programs if I didn't conform. In short, I had to learn how to write, all over again.

To this day, a few scars remain. Some of the capital letters I still write in the Italic way. I do not loop some of my lower case letters.

I encourage you to look at a sample of Cursive Italic writing before you try this, although you probably won't have much luck searching for this dead style on the internet. It looks positively childish. It is printed letters randomly connected by seriffs in awkward places.

When I learned to write normal cursive, I couldn't believe how natural and free-flowing it was. Cursive Italic requires you to stop and lift your pen to add unnatural seriffs, despite the author's claims. With regular handwriting, you only stop to cross t's and dot i's (which Cursive Italic does not eliminate).

Listen to someone whose handwriting is affected by this snake oil to this day. Avoid this method of writing.

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