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Why the Education Establishment Hates Cursive
American Thinker ^ | December 23, 2016 | Bruce Deitrick Price

Posted on 12/23/2016 5:03:55 AM PST by Kaslin

Modern educators are dismissive of cursive. Indeed, many are hostile to such a degree that you should immediately suspect that they are up to something.

Here is an education journalist providing the Party Line: "Cursive writing is an anachronism. Spending any classroom time on it is comparable to teaching how to use an abacus: it's interesting as a history lesson, and probably offers some side benefits, but it is not at all practical as a day-to-day skill in the modern, connected world."

A professor of education argues: "Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having been taught for decades." (You can depend on education professors to confuse "decades" with "centuries.")

When you read such swaggering attacks on cursive, you might assume that the question is settled. The old geezer is dead, so take him off life support. You rarely see thoughtful praise of cursive. Even people who are sentimentally inclined to support cursive can't think of many reasons to do so.

I propose a higher truth: the Education Establishment is always a reliable guide to what is good. If our socialist professors rail against X, you know that X is educational gold. Here are eight reasons why cursive is valuable and we should fight to keep it in the classroom:

1) LEARN TO READ FASTER. The main thing is that learning cursive accelerates learning to read. If it did nothing else, this alone would still make it a huge asset. Cursive obviously makes a child more aware of letter forms and how words are spelled. Don Potter, the phonics guru, states: "Any attempt to educate American children that neglects the direct development of fluent handwriting is doomed to fail. The little dribble of handwriting done with the typical phonics programs is FAR below optimal."

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: cursive; horseandbuggy; idioticrant; idiotprofessor; leftismoncampus; obsolescence; silliness
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To: impimp

“Cursive is a waste of time. I agree with the educational establishment.”

May your chains set lightly upon you...


21 posted on 12/23/2016 5:28:58 AM PST by Paulie (America without Christ is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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To: Paulie

Cursive is no more important than Helvetica, or Times New Roman, or any other font.

Typefaces and letter styles are irrelevant, and ninnies with their panties all in a bunch because their preference isn’t being catered to are as annoying as a kid throwing a rolling tantrum in the toy department of a department store.


22 posted on 12/23/2016 5:29:32 AM PST by MrEdd (MrEdd)
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To: Kaslin

When I first joined Ancestry.com and began doing family history, I struggled to read the early census records (written in cursive). Many were stunningly beautiful; a few awful. Now, it’s a real joy for me.

Google up “declaration of independence” images; it will take you to a page where you can blow up Jefferson’s first draft. Show it to a young kid; far too many cannot read it. I did this a while ago to a 14 YO - “I don’t read cursive” was the answer.


23 posted on 12/23/2016 5:29:40 AM PST by QBFimi (It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world... Tarfon)
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To: Kaslin

Wahhh! It’s too hard!


24 posted on 12/23/2016 5:29:58 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Kaslin

Can’t disagree. I’m lousy at cursive...got no better than a “C”. Computers don’t print in cursive. And anyone reading the constitution can always find one that’s beened typed.


25 posted on 12/23/2016 5:30:12 AM PST by Terry Mross (This country will fail to exist inmy lifetime. And I'm gettin' up there in age.)
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To: Kaslin
Yeah, let's throw handwriting on the ash-heap along with Shakespeare, American History and multiplication tables.

And BTW I taught myself to use an abacus when I was a child. It's not easy to explain why but that knowledge made octal and hexadecimal addition and subtraction as simple for me as normal decimal arithmetic.

ML/NJ

26 posted on 12/23/2016 5:30:33 AM PST by ml/nj
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To: rlmorel

Getting your own handwriting font sounds cool. Glad you were able to resurrect at least some of what you had before your physical problems


27 posted on 12/23/2016 5:31:05 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Mercat

I have finally gotten the hang of gothic German type but continue to be stumped by the handwriting on original German documents.


28 posted on 12/23/2016 5:32:21 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: Kaslin

In 1964, my second grade teacher told me that cursive writing would help me write faster. The transition and being forced to use it in all my classes only made me slower and unable to keep up as well as not wanting to write anything for anybody. My cursive handwriting was always terrible and still is. My signature is a scribble. Once I was out of high school, my signature was the only thing required in cursive, whether it was legible or not. All through college, and engineering career, not needed. Our founding documents have all been copied letter per letter into standard easy to read font in both hard copy and digital. Some might even be written in stone(not cursive mind you...)


29 posted on 12/23/2016 5:33:16 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Paulie

Is that you, Torquemada?
< /snark >


30 posted on 12/23/2016 5:33:20 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic, Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: Gaffer

We overlapped our service a few years...:)

Honestly, I am loathe to send emails for anything other than communications needed for specific purposes.

I can’t bring myself to write them for any kind of special occasion (Birthday, anniversary, whatever)

I have to write a card and snail-mail it...then again, I am someone who decries the clothes people wear to church, funerals, and dinners at fancy restaurants, meaning I cling to tradition.

At work the other day (I work at a hospital) they handed out Santa hats to anyone who wanted one (it was kind of a fun thing) so I took one and wore it around.

I have to say...I was uncomfortable, but not for the reason you think. I am someone who takes a hat off when I go indoors, especially when in a hospital (In the Navy, you always had to uncover if you went inside, specifically in a hospital) so I always do it if I go to a restaurant or any other indoor function.

While I had the hat on, I had a nagging feeling I was breaking a rule, and it became so distracting to me I had to remove it...:)


31 posted on 12/23/2016 5:33:53 AM PST by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: Lisbon1940

“I have finally gotten the hang of gothic German type but continue to be stumped by the handwriting on original German documents.”

Wow. I love the German language. If I were 20 years younger I would make it a major goal to learn it. I struggled for six months to get a bit of it which helped when we went to Austria but I can’t really get motivated to take it any further. It sounds like you are well advanced. Good for you.


32 posted on 12/23/2016 5:34:25 AM PST by Mercat (Men never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when they do it out of conscience.” (Blaise Pascal))
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To: ClearCase_guy

I’ll bet she “cursives” (like a pirate)


33 posted on 12/23/2016 5:34:57 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (The fear of stark justice sends hot urine down their thighs.)
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To: ml/nj

I just changed out the batteries in my slide-rule.


34 posted on 12/23/2016 5:35:02 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic, Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: Kaslin

Cutting through the education machine’s clatter, I translate the opposition to cursive a couple of ways:

1) We’re too lazy to teach it and kids are too stupid to learn it so why bother?
2) The time we spend teaching handwriting could better be used teaching why America is a racist, sexist hellhole and an utter failure as a political experiment.


35 posted on 12/23/2016 5:35:27 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Lisbon1940

I have a translation source for you [Fraktur].
Please FReepMail me for the contact.


36 posted on 12/23/2016 5:36:18 AM PST by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic, Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: Gaffer

Teletype machines printed in cursive? Not the ones I saw.


37 posted on 12/23/2016 5:36:24 AM PST by Terry Mross (This country will fail to exist inmy lifetime. And I'm gettin' up there in age.)
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To: Kaslin

Reminds me of their battle against imperial units in favor of the metric system.


38 posted on 12/23/2016 5:36:49 AM PST by Yardstick
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To: impimp

Earlier this month, you wrote “I care about the long term strength of the US Constitution”.

And now “Cursive is a waste of time.”?

Huh? The “long term strength” of a document depends on us being able to read it, not listen to some lefty tell us “what it really means”.


39 posted on 12/23/2016 5:36:52 AM PST by QBFimi (It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world... Tarfon)
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To: Ransomed

Heh, I tried to learn shorthand, but gave up. I thought it would be useful when I was in college at taking notes.


40 posted on 12/23/2016 5:37:03 AM PST by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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