Posted on 09/19/2009 12:48:19 PM PDT by Steelfish
Cursive Writing Is Fading Skill, But So What? Fewer school emphasize ‘penmanship’ as computer use increases
A student practices both printing and cursive handwriting skills at a classroom at the Mountaineer Montessori School in Charleston, W.Va. . Bob Bird / AP [Pic in URL]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Charleston resident Kelli Davis was in for a surprise when her daughter brought home some routine paperwork at the start of school this fall. Davis signed the form and then handed it to her daughter for the eighth-grader's signature.
"I just assumed she knew how to do it, but I have a piece of paper with her signature on it and it looks like a little kid's signature," Davis said.
Her daughter was apologetic, but explained that she hadn't been required to make the graceful loops and joined letters of cursive writing in years. That prompted a call to the school and another surprise.
West Virginia's largest school system teaches cursive, but only in the 3rd grade.
"It doesn't get quite the emphasis it did years ago, primarily because of all the technology skills we now teach," said Jane Roberts, assistant superintendent for elementary education in Kanawha County schools.
Davis' experience gets repeated every time parents, who recall their own hours of laborious cursive practice, learn that what used to be called "penmanship" is being shunted aside at schools across the country in favor of 21st century skills.
Fewer people using handwriting
The decline of cursive is happening as students are doing more and more work on computers, including writing. In 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Maybe just as well, My handwriting is borderline doctor’s caliber.
I went to Catholic School for 12 years and penmanship was taught, but there are just some of us who couldn’t get the hang of it, and 1 of them was me.
My cursive handwriting used to be picture perfect, but over the years it has become less so. I figured out that it was because of all the time I spend typing on the computer.
I am a 40 year old, and on the very rare instances where I am required to write something by hand, I have to seriously concentrate, because it is such a rarely used skill set. Signing my signature is different because I do it every day... But to actually hand write for any length is tedious and difficult for me. Just because I don’t hand write anything.
I imagine that the NEA figures that it is far more important that “the churldren” know how to put a condum on a cucumber than waste that time teaching them how to write.
>>Maybe just as well, My handwriting is borderline doctor’s caliber.<<
I was told in 6th grade to never use cursive writing again.
Good advice. I print everything.
DD started catholic school in 3rd grade and it was a disaster- they just ordered that every kid would do their work in cursive - without teaching it.
It was a nightmare for her and for me to try and teach it to her and keep her ego up when she failed spelling and could spell the words but not legibly write them.
This year in 6th grade - cursive has been dropped. Her handwriting is still awful. Meanwhile am homeschooling 6th grade brother and teaching him...cursive.
So far his writing looks good.
Understand- and yet handwriting is more than a means of communication, it is an expression. It’s no small wonder that ancient handwritten texts of sacred scripture inspire awe and admiration.
Well I love Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, or even in Hebrew... I don’t see the same beauty in our utilitarian script.
My handwriting is a mix of cursive and printing. I think most adults develop a distinctive style of their own. Signatures, now that’s a different story. Most signatures from business people I encounter are nothing more than a scrawl of some sort, you couldn’t read them if your life depended on it. I imagine that’s why most forms now have a line for signature and then a line that says “print your name.”
BTW, did you know the last course about to be MD's
take? How to write unreadable prescriptions.
Then it is the Pharmacists error if the wrong medicine
is issued.
I missed 'em because I was taking a spelling class instead. Fortunately my grandmother took up the slack and taught me her beautiful copperplate ("Spencerian") hand.
It's actually fun.
Frankly, I think cursive should not only be taught, but handwriting or penmanship or whatever you want to call it.
I can't write in script on the blackboard anymore -- my students have trouble reading it. Not because it's sloppy (well, maybe a little -- I am rushing and constantly looking over my shoulder), but because they hadn't learned it.
ah, no- they didn’t teach it there, either.
They just didn’t require it be used until 3rd grade.
I wasn’t the only parent blindsided!
Wow, that’s pretty odd. Maybe they USED to teach it and then dropped it and nobody told the 3rd grade teachers? They taught it in 1 and 2 in my school, of course that was around the time of the War of the Spanish Succession . . . .
Then it is the Pharmacists error if the wrong medicine is issued.
"Every prescription says the same thing. It's a message from the doctor to the pharmacist. It says 'I got my money. Now you get yours'." - Jackie Mason
I always hated cursive - allthelettersruntogether.
Left-Handed. Was taught but mediocre at best. At least nobody tried to make me switch hands, at least not after seeing my right-hand penmanship once. I print everything so it can be deciphered later.
Glad to know it isn’t just me who has had to go through concentrating to write by hand. It is a double whammy on me, I am left handed.
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