Posted on 08/20/2006 3:45:13 PM PDT by 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?
In my Catholic school, long ago in the 1970's, the nuns made us focus heavily on penmanship. As a result, I had beautiful handwriting. Of course, once out of practice, it declined. Still, it's a craft you never forget, much like riding a bike.
Others have already mentioned the reasons why it's important to learn to write in cursive - writing notes and cards, taking notes more quickly in college, the discipline, etc.
I would add that cursive writing also teaches creativity. The flow and shape of the letters... it's a beautiful craft.
For all the above reasons, my children are required to write all words in cursive as they each master the craft one by one.
And, yes, typing is important, too. I didn't learn to type until high school. My oldest can touch-type at age 10.
My writing is horrible and is a mix of cursive and printing.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sorry, this should read:
This is entirely due to NOT having been properly instructed.
My kids WILL learn to handwrite well.
Maybe not. Some handwriting appears to be hereditary.
Same thing here. My son was taught script as well and I could never figure out why. He was in a class for gifted students so I thought the teacher knew what she was doing. He had the hardest time trying to read cursive after that.
Cursive may be "traditional" but it is a tradeoff between legibility and speed, period. Computers fill in speed far better than cursive can. Do the math.
I am excellent at cursive, but I only use it for writing thank-you notes and signatures, both of which are situations that do not demand high degrees of legibility, and both situations where using typing is either impractical or rude. In situations like work, all my correspondence is going to either be typed or printed in unambiguous block letters.
There is no logical reason to teach cursive over typing, except to make Miss Manners happy.
When we homeschooled, I started my son on cursive in third grade. Because that is what you do, right? He could not do it -- holes in the paper, tears, extreme frustration. This is a methodical kid, and he could not do it RIGHT. I challenged my assumption -- why do we do cursive? My conclusion was that it is for thank you notes to Aunt Gilda. My husband, a scientist, prints on paper but mostly types on the computer.
If the real reason for writing is to communicate, then cursive stands in the way of that. A child can communicate and think more clearly when dictating or typing. Cursive is a secondary skill to communicating, and it sets them back tremendously to have to master it before they get the opportunity to communicate their thoughts.
PS -- In tenth grade!!! he asked me, 'How do you make a cursive capital J?' and got cursive in about a minute. Got great SATs, it surely did not set his thinking back.
Well, and of course, teach him to SIGN his name in cursive. But frankly, no one can read my cursive, and it is too slow compared to the computer to bother with. I believe it is archaic. Except in the schools, where it is BIG, for some unchallenged reason.
Maybe we could just require all kids to buy a cursive font. This is ridiculous.
My mother made me write a page full of letters every night after school before I could go out and play. Today, I get compliments in banks, on applications, etc of my superb penmanship. I'm told it is unusual for a man.
We are spending all our time teaching kids touchy feely stuff in school and forgetting about the essentials that insure their futures.
"With the advent of computers, cursive, as a way of formalizing correspondance, has fallen out of favor. Any task which would have once required a "fair hand," is now done using word processing and a printer. Increasingly, the teaching of cursive is being de-emphasized in schools, and is generally reserved only for situations such as timed tests with large writing portions, where it considered faster, although this use too is falling out of favor."
from Wikipedia.
This is not the only thing that is being de-emphasized in schools.
I got into a hearted argument with one of my sons teachers a few years back when he was asked to intentionally misspell a list of words. When I asked her why, I was told that spelling is so bad nowadays that kids need to be able to recognize words spelled all different ways.
The dumbing down of America continues...
I don't think it was the instruction, I think it was the student in my case :)
Like another Freeper here, I was asked by other students for my notes in college courses all the time. I took excellent notes in cursive. If you learn how to write cursive well when you're young, you can write in cursive very quickly later and it will still be legible to anyone reading it.
I cannot block print as quickly because I have to pick up my pen to make each letter.
So far, my kids are having no problems at all learning cursive. Oddly enough, my middle child had some difficulty learning to print neatly in block letters, but he picked up on cursive right away.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Of course, you have to teach them to spell. They might be some of the few of their generation who can, however. I notice that too, with my tutees. "We don't have to spell it correctly for my teacher." "Well, you do for me." haha.
Good for you. Keep it up.
Thank you. The kids know it is bogus, I think. And the teachers must, I would think.
No one has been able to give me a good reason why cursive should be required. Am I missing something?
I'm admittedly something of a luddite where writing is concerned - I love writing with fountain pens…
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