Posted on 09/27/2015 5:35:19 AM PDT by knarf
I well remember learning and practicing writing cursive at home, with the help from my mother, via an old instruction book of hers. It was summer vacation, and I was definately wanting to learn to do it on my own, before it was to be taught the upcoming school semester.
It was something of a symbolic transition for most of us kids, that we were crossing into the “grown-up” world by writing cursive. Block lettering was seen as for kindergarteners.
Anyway, I’d like to see the teaching of cursive maintained, just like history and geography, two other things that have seemingly become de-emphasized in recent decades. It seems like there has been a conscious effort to eradicate the elements of history/heritage that used to weave us together culturally. Probably one of the contributing factors to why this no longer seems like a country anymore, but a random, urban bus-station with disparate comers and goers.
“Some day Americans will need an approved scholar to tell them what the constitution says.”
We’re getting there. We’re down to nine now.
Kids today think cursive is language
When I heard that girl say she couldn’t read cursive I thought she was stupid too, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t taught any more. I remember learning cursive many years ago, it didn’t take up that much time.
My handwriting is not great now because my hand cramps up but printing isn’t any easier.
Cursive is a skill that will take a period of school a day, for several years to develop. The time and place for that is during the development of penmanship, grades 2-5.
Is this what we want kids spending that time learning in today’s society? Mind you, the age of cursive as a practical, daily application has passed.
I agree that cursive holds considerable retrospective value. Does that value equal the intensity of learning for all children at that age? What’s the opportunity cost? What aren’t we teaching as a result that might have far more practical applications in the 21st century world?
The original post was phrased as a question of school board priority. Is this truly where the learning priorities of our elementary children should be vested today? Learning a style of writing that few will adopt and most will not even see in use in any practical form in their daily lives?
Get a calligraphy fountain pen kit with nibs of various widths. Start with the widest so your writing is huge but good, then work your way down to the narrow nib.
I improved my writing by putting a straight edge ruler on the line.
Indeed...
When I was in school in the 1970s, there was much controversy over whether Latin should still be taught in schools. People would argue the same points, that people ought to be able to read ancient Roman literature it its original form. This, in a time, when it was a challenge to get the typical student to read "Huckleberry Finn" or "Call of the Wild."
Needless to say, Latin is all but gone from the schools. I believe it is still taught in some places but not as widespread as it once was.
In business meetings, I notice that most of the under 40 crowd take notes on electronic devices like tablets and laptops. Now voice recognition technology is such that you can dictate your verbal notes to a device for posterity and instant recall. I think that eventually, handwriting itself will be a rare art form, practiced only by eccentrics and hobbyists.
But if those kids are unable to read the original, how will they know if the version they’re reading online is correct? Once no one can read the original, it becomes very easy to start introducing paraphrases and distortions by “making the language accessible”.
Knowledge of cursive is requred for title searches when people need to go back to old documents and old surveys. But if folks are fine with not knowing for sure what something like that says......
Genealogy is popular today, cursive is needed to go back to research old documents even from the distant past - - like the 1900’s (sarc.)
They no longer teach cursive?!?
I’ve always wanted to do calligraphy.. my father’s writing was so elegant and perfect..
That was the first time I had heard about this as well. Then I checked with my nephews and sadly that is the direction our Department of (UN)Education is going.
I am a professional writer, and my cursive is absolutely horrible. As a boy I didn’t want to learn it, wasn’t made to learn it and though I can read it, the only thing I write in cursive is my own name. And that’s a shame.
All I can do is applaud this idea.
The comparison is the Bible. I don’t know Hebrew or Greek, but not only can I find copies of Bibles in English, I can easily access comprehensive studies of the process of translation and make my own decisions about the why and how of translation controversies.
Some kids will learn Latin. Some will learn cursive. If free speech and expression is truncated in the future such that the products in cursive from our past can’t be studied by some for the benefit of all, then we have bigger problems than can be solved by cursive.
In today’s society, is the best opportunity cost for every elementary school child teaching him a style of writing that he will not likely ever routinely use?
Printing drives me nuts. After so many years of typing, my cursive is a disaster :)
It takes me 10 minutes to send a text message because I type with one finger while these kids use it like it’s a PC.
I type 90 wpm max on PC. 9 wpm max on phone lol
I’ve largely forgotten how to write cursive. Haven’t used it since sometime in high school - which was the early 70s for me. By college, I was printing as fast as I could do cursive, and the results were easier on the eyes. Other than writing checks, I haven’t used cursive writing in 40 years.
So in 20 years most people wont be able to read the Declaration of Independence unless it is typed up. Great.
And the reason they are not teaching cursive is that so many elementary schools have computers now (Apples) that kids spend so much time on a keyboard/touch screen that they don’t have time to practice penmanship.
Get computers out of the elementary schools and you will have time for cursive unless you have too much common core.
Oh, I almost forgot, the common core assessments are on the computer. Silly me.
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