Should Cursive Be Required? (Semi-Vanity)

[AVNevis]

My little brother is starting the forth grade. His teacher is making all of the students write in cursive. This is a problem for him since he hasn't recieved much instruction in it so far and even his printing is kind of messy.

But my question is why? Why are we making kids write all of their classwork in cursive? The last time I used that skill was in the fifth grade when I was learning cursive. Except for a few rare occasions, I haven't used it since.

I can understand teaching it a little bit so you can read cursive writing and develop a signature. But make the kids write everything in cursive? Isn't that a little much for a skill they will only rarely use? They may as well learn Old English.

I think I would much rather have them practive typing and printing neatly, which they will use much more.

No one has been able to give me a good reason why cursive should be required. Am I missing something?

[keats5]

I use cursive quite a bit when writing personal notes of sympathy, encouragement or thanks. I understand a small boy could get away with printing a thank you note, but once he's an adult people will expect his written notes and letters to look more dignified.

Young people might feel emailed communication is acceptable for everything. However, when I spend hours cleaning, cooking and preparing for guests I really do appreciate receiving hand written thank you notes. When my parents died, I received several comforting long letters from loved ones. None were printed or typed.

[republican4ever]

Geez, I have mixed feelings about this.
I learned to print in school. Then I learned to use cursive... or so I thought. I clearly remember Sister XXXX applying her knuckles to my head when I could not produce legible, "nice" cursive. It never, ever got any better and up to the present (40 years later) I still cannot produce nice, legible cursive. Fortunately, I can't even remember when I had to write anything in cursive.
Then, on the other hand, I did learn to add, subtract, multiply, divide, find percentages, square roots and so on the old fashioned way... and as of now I have absolutely no use for any of those skills. I use a calculator! They say learning the old fashioned way helps you develop logical thinking and problem solving skills.
So, I guess learning cursive writing might teach you some skill not related to writing per se... patience, maybe?
So, cursive or no cursive? God only knows, just don't take my PC away!

[republican4ever]

LOL!!! I can see myself in that picture... and I'm not a guy either!

[republican4ever]

"...People that can produce artful cursive will always appear to me as more intelligent..."

OUCH!!! I must seem like a total moron to many people! Sometimes I can't read my own writing!

[AmeriBrit]

Just how legal do you think a contract of any kind would be with a name printed or just an "X" in the place where a signature is required?

[quantim]

Lol, yikes, past = passed. (Oh, the horror).

See what I mean? The nuns were beating cursive into me in the early 60's and I still was more afraid of the same nun in the afternoon who taught phonics...rotf.

[metmom]

Good point.

[metmom]

I've seen the handwriting of quite a few old people and I've always been impressed with how nice and neat it looks, even the men's. I don't see the sloppy scrawls on the Declaration of Independence that I see everywhere today. Sure, there may not be much use for it, and there can be plenty of excuses for not improving it, but nice handwriting speaks well of a person and is easier to read.

[LikeLight]

Just how legal do you think a contract of any kind would be with a name printed or just an "X" in the place where a signature is required?

Electronic signatures are already legal in many contexts, and e-notarizing is also here. Even longhand signatures are going the way of the buggy whip. Since when do we want our schools to spend years forcing kids to learn a primitive art form?

[livius]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one! I was also a lousy typist, but thanks to the wonders of the PC and Word, I've managed to overcome that. Whenever I hear people bemoaning the lost days of the old manual Royal, I know we're talking about a different breed, different from me, at any rate. I failed handwriting - and typing. Twice, in fact.

[Michael Goldsberry]

Since when do we want our schools to spend years forcing kids to learn a primitive art form?

Since when a hurricane can turn the lights off.

[processing please hold]

just hunt and peck?"

Hey, hey, hey. Don't you go slamming us 'hunt and pecker's'

Ok, that didn't come out right but you know what I mean. I'm deadly with my two pointer fingers. lol

[kittymyrib]

"The Declaration of Independence is one such example."

We can't write as well, speak as well, or think as well as our Founding Fathers. Ours is a devolving culture in which grunts and caterwauling constitute "music" and eating fast food out of the sack is considered acceptable dining. One can understand now how the "Dark Ages" fell upon Europe after the flowering of beauty and culture in ancient Greece.

[AmeriBrit]

Since when do we want our schools to spend years forcing kids to learn a primitive art form?

---

By that same kind of ridiculous reasoning, why bother having kids learn math etc., in schools then? After all can't they just use a calculator?

If we followed your way of thinking I can just imagine the panic and kios there would be if someone wrote the code to a massive virus that spread around the world and shut all computer operations down. You and your ilk would be responsible for everything coming to a complete standstill. Those who have the same stupid idea's as you are responsible for the 'dumbing down' of todays kids.

[George Smiley]

I write my name in cursive, and that's it. I print or type otherwise.

I took mechanical drawing in college.

This was back in the paleolithic era when mechanical drawing actually involved placing pencil to paper and (gasp) hand-lettering-- instead of using Autocad® as is current practice.

As anyone else who has been there, done that, will tell you--

You are irrevocably altered by this process.

I found that I could no longer write in cursive-- and cannot do so to this day.

It took me ten years to re-learn how to write my name in cursive, and I've been told that it looks like that of a British merchant banker.

OTOH, the clerks in the checkout lines frequently comment on how nice and readable my checks are.

Except for the signature, that is.

[RSteyn]

Cursive is faster than printing. Also, if you are going to read anything personal generated by a human prior to a few decades back, most likely it will be in cursive.

[Drago]

I have been printing block letters since I took drafting in H.S...signature is pretty much the only thing I use cursive on.

[George Smiley]

We got my son some old-fashioned first grade pads with the traditional printed uppercase and lowercase sample letters on them.

When he got to school, to our dismay we found that they used a method called D'Nealian script which was a way of printing that supposedly made the transition from printing to cursive less traumatic.

And while he's extremely literate and a good creative writer, his handwriting, even having just graduated high school, just plain sucks rocks.

[Tired of Taxes]

Homeschool Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

[wintertime]

My writing is horrible and is a mix of cursive and printing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is entirely due to having been properly instructed.

I practiced cursive handwriting with my 3 homeschooled children every school day. They have beautiful handwriting.