So Long Cursive Writing? A Critical Part of America’s Education

Clash Daily ^ | September 23, 2013 | R.G. Yoho

[Clintons-B-Gone]

When it comes to the matter of educating children, the state of Ohio and the federal government are run by a host of blithering idiots.

It was over a year ago that I learned the state of Ohio will no longer be teaching cursive writing in their classrooms.

Upon first learning of the announcement, I foolishly believed that the state’s educators might eventually return to their collective senses and re-institute the teaching of this critical skill.

[Olog-hai]

Rather than expounding on how wrong that is, I will let at least one educational institution (the collective of which you seem to revere above the Maker of all) dispute that . . .

5 Reasons Cursive Writing Should be Taught in School – Concordia University

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-— poor kids have to poke around a keyboard with two fingers having no idea that there is a vastly more efficient way to use it. -—

I think that’s generally true, but my youngest types faster with two fingers than the rest of the family. She taught herself on the computer before we could train her in keyboarding. It’s amazing to watch.

[Don Corleone]

Casualty? I beg to differ.

My penmanship was always so poor, that I couldn’t read my OWN handwriting. It was supposedly faster to write in cursive than it was to print, but I never found that to be the case.

Anything other than personal correspondence is typed anyway - or official forms are required to be PRINTED on

. Sorry - cursive writing is a waste of valuable school time.

Does your bank accept a PRINTED signature on checks??Drivers License?Voter Registration ? Library card? Social Security card? etc.

Don't think so.

[autumnraine]

How many historic texts will be like a foreign language? Even ancestry census records?

[RightField]

Those documents were mass-printed almost from day one, and they were not reproduced in cursive.

True, but there are massive amount of documents in archives and courthouse record rooms that were never reproduced, and were written in cursive. Think letters, wills, deeds, land grants, birth certificates, baptismal records, etc. Any serious genealogy investigation or historical research requires being able to read original documents.

[July4]

The public school curriculum is dumbing down at an astonishing rate. We have not come to grips with the fact that there are children who will not or cannot master certain areas or levels of difficulty of learning.

We have told parents that all children are equal, and they are — in the sight of God, but NOT in scholastic abilities. We are still trying to find a way to educate all children so that the outcomes are the same, and that CAN be done. However, equality of outcomes depends on teaching at an exceptionally low level, so that none can fail. It would be far better to encourage each child to conquer basic skills: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Add all the other wonderful subjects and increase the difficulty until the children show clearly that they have reached their maximum: geography, history, government, physics, languages, arts, etc.

As it stands now, we soon will have two Americas (if I may borrow a phrase) consisting of those who have diplomas and those who have diplomas AND an education. Educated children, by the way, WILL be able to read and write cursive. One day you will be able to tell who went to public school by whether or not he can read and write cursive; the private and religious schools do not feel the same pressures to dumb down.

In our city, property taxes are soaring as we build one palatial public school campus after another. The children, though, spend their days preparing to live in their parents’ basements — with little preparation for entry into the world of commerce.

[Cold Heart]

“will look like code to many”

I had gotten off watch, my ship in a San Francisco shipyard, and I hiked a couple blocks to the trolley line.
Sat down next to a Chinese gentlman who was reading from a small piece of white parchment. The gentlman turned the note away from me so I could not read it, but not quickly enough for me to notice it was written in Chinese characters. I chuckled to myself. When he was done reading it, he ate it:)

[Olog-hai]

Never mind the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

[dblshot]

The problem isn't in the hand writing used it's in the thoughts expressed. Today most communication is typed, like this. Twitter limits communication to 140 characters which seems appropriate for a population with an attention span measured in seconds not hours. Dressing up what goes for serious conversations these days in a beautiful cursive style is like the proverbial lipstick on a pig. I don't miss cursive at all. Sorry Ms. Libberman, I know you taught me well in the third grade but that was a long time ago.
And thank the Lord for spell check. I never was good at spelling.

[Dr. Sivana]

Sorry - cursive writing is a waste of valuable school time.

Many of the things we learn in school are not explicitly or directly used in day to day life, though learning them is not a waste of time. For me, chemistry was the hated subject that I rarely employ directly, but learning it was no waste of time.

Getting past having a proper signature, which requires rudimentary skill in cursive, the actual act of learning it and using it has been shown to develop the brain and coordination. Also, the more ways you learn to communicate: printing, speaking, cursive writing, typing, morse code keying, learning other languages, etc. the more your overall communication skills develop.

At very least, is there no value in being able to read the documents of the 18th and 19th centuries in their original form? Must the body of the Declaration of Independence look like a complete garble?

If the classrooms could be trusted to replace the newly available time with proper literature, instruction in diction, physics, properly done European history, or Latin, I'd concede there might be some value to the trade-off.

The children of yesteryear, even those who took the typing courses that would be the rough equivalent of a word processing/typing course today could taking a few months in 3rd grade to learn cursive, without missing out on anything useful; our children can as well.

[Dr. Sivana]

Thank you for an exceptional link.

[Grams A]

Sorry - cursive writing is a waste of valuable school time.”

I suppose you are one of those people who do e-cards, e-invites, don’t write thank you notes and text everything rather than place a personal phone call.

Not teaching cursive or how to write a thank you note in longhand is yet another nail in the coffin of discarding all things related to good manners.

Learning to write in longhand is all about shape, spacing, relationship issues and demonstrating manners which will ensure that Grannies may very well send you another gift in the future.

[chrisser]

I think that’s generally true, but my youngest types faster with two fingers than the rest of the family. She taught herself on the computer before we could train her in keyboarding. It’s amazing to watch.

Good for her.

How well do you think that will work when writing something like a 10 page paper? Of course, for all I know that isn't required of children any more.

I took typing in college and I can't imagine not knowing how to do so in this digital age (I graduated from HS in '85), especially since I'm in IT. Being able to input accurately without having to look at my fingers saves me a heckuva lot of time.

[escapefromboston]

I have no doubt that cursive is important.....but....I am guessing kids in school today can type a lot faster than kids 30 years ago. I would also hazard to guess that typing is more important for most jobs today than proper cursive.

I used to be able to write cursive fairly well but I probably haven’t used it (outside signing something) in 20 years.

[Dr. Sivana]

Dressing up what goes for serious conversations these days in a beautiful cursive style is like the proverbial lipstick on a pig.

Maybe we should consider ditching the pig, or at least providing some attractive side dishes, rather than catering to the pig.

Once in a while, I will write a letter in cursive to an old friend for whom I have an e-mail address. It never fails to please.

[wideawake]

This is a bit silly.

Cursive writing developed as a response to the inherent limitations of a technology.

For thousands of years before cursive was briefly the norm, writing individual letters was the standard.

There is a reason why printers immediately reverted to individual letters once the technology was available.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[Ezekiel]

People who read and write cursive will soon be able to communicate in what will look like “code” to many.

Nothing new under the sun!

[wideawake]

How many historic texts will be like a foreign language? Even ancestry census records?

Most historic texts, by definition, are written in foreign languages.

For 99% of English speakers, Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton are effectively written in a foreign language - whether presented in cursive or Times New Roman.

[clee1]

Agree completely.