Cursive Hats

Cursive has been a quiet generational dividing line since it was left out of the Common Core standards in 2010. When Instagram changed its wordmark, BuzzFeed ran "Instagram Just Killed Cursive" on the theory that Gen Z cannot read the old logo, and Upworthy watched Gen X and Gen Z argue over whether Angelina Jolie's thank-you note was even legible. One commenter put the pride of the readers neatly: "It's like we have our own secret code the youngins can't crack." The Blaine County Journal reported that grandchildren can't read Grandma's letters, which is why somebody in every family ends up as the translator. These Cursive hats are for that translator. The plain CURSIVE badge is the search term. I CAN READ CURSIVE is the flag, and I CAN READ ANCIENT TEXTS (CURSIVE) is a cousin of a Walmart tee title. The longer lines carry the bits: a grocery list written in cursive for security, kids who cannot read a note, a capital Q nobody ever learned to make, and the wearer as the museum for a lost art. States have been bringing cursive back into elementary classrooms, so the joke is aging into a trend rather than out of one. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat, and any of them suits the grandparent, teacher or parent who still signs their name with a flourish.