Posted on 08/12/2005 7:17:04 AM PDT by RosieCotton
Such attitudes are worrying to a growing number of parents, educators and historians, who fear that computers are speeding the demise of a uniquely American form of expression. Handwriting experts fear that the wild popularity of e-mail, instant messages and other electronic communication, particularly among kids, could erase cursive within a few decades.
At technology-savvy Horrall Elementary - where students take keyboard lessons in third grade, precisely when they learn cursive - Monique's teacher, Ed Boell, is fighting the trend. He refuses to give extra points when students turn in laser-printed homework assignments with fancy computer fonts, and he urges kids to send handwritten letters to parents and friends.
Still, about half his students use computers for some assignments, up every year since the late 1990s. He ends his cursive lesson with a warning:
"The truth is, boys and girls, even if you write a lot of e-mail on the computer, you will always need to write things down on paper at some point in your life," Boell says. "The letters you write to people are beautiful, and they'll cherish them forever. Have any of you ever received an e-mail that you cherished?"
The students eagerly shout, "No!" and return to loops and curves.
Since switching from print to the more free-flowing handwriting earlier this year, Boell's students are writing faster and more legibly.
But in many other classrooms, traditional cursive is on its way out. So many students have trouble with it that teachers are increasingly adopting a simpler style known as Italic or "print cursive."
Online discussion forums for teachers estimate that as many as 7 percent of third graders are using Italic, whose printed letters are "semi-connected" with small tails. It's not as loopy or slanted as the 20th-century style developed by Austin Norman Palmer and adopted as a standard in schools nationwide.
Sue Bolton at Kings Mountain Elementary School in Woodside teaches the Palmer Method to her second- and third-graders, but many of her students turn in homework with touches of Italic they've picked up from siblings or other teachers.
"They've got good handwriting now, and they love cursive," Bolton says as her students filter in from recess. "But it wouldn't surprise me if they just walked around with their little keyboards and typed everything a few years from now."
According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 90 percent of Americans between the ages of 5 and 17 use computers. It's not uncommon for kids to type 20 or 30 words per minute by the time they leave elementary school.
The trend pervades Silicon Valley, where many schools have computer labs and kids gravitate toward careers in the computer industry. But some say students' struggles with cursive have reached alarming proportions nationwide.
Michael Sull, a 54-year-old artist in Overland Park, Kan., says today's third graders have not developed proper forearm and hand musculature, seated posture or mental discipline. The former president of the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting says keyboards, joysticks and cell phone touch pads have ruined kids' ability to hold a pencil properly, let alone write legibly.
"Penmanship these days is thought of as a vestigial organ because it's not translated into dollars, like computer skills," says Sull, who honed his writing skills under Paul O'Hara, a pre-eminent 20th century penman.
"If you need to relay information immediately and have just a half-second to grab anything, maybe just a napkin, penmanship is so valuable," Sull says. "It doesn't rely on batteries or power. It's like breathing - it's always with you."
Parents who pride themselves on their penmanship often bemoan their children's cursive - particularly when they can't read sloppy notes or notice that their kids increasingly turn in homework via e-mail. Many adults pine for a return to the Palmer Method or even its fancier predecessor, Spencerian.
"Cursive was so character-defining when I was in school," says Amy Greene, whose 9-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son prefer keyboards to cursive in their Palo Alto classrooms. "The way you wrote something was considered part of your inner being, your core, your worth. ... Now it's considered an anachronism."
Cursive's ultimate fate is unknown. Few statistics mark its demise. Some passionate penmen say it won't go the way of the feather quill pen, noting that the style survived electric typewriters.
Nabeel Khaliq, an 11-year-old sixth-grader from Mississauga, Ontario, comes from a family of cursive enthusiasts and can't imagine not writing. He took first place in his age category in the 2002 World Handwriting Contest, sponsored by the Albany, N.Y.-based Handwriting for Humanity club.
"It must be a natural thing that my family has, except for my brother," Nabeel says. "I write all of my rough drafts by hand."
Still, Nabeel's cursive is rivaled only by his typing. He types 40 words per minute - he was the fastest typist in fifth grade, a close second this year to a classmate who hit 50 words per minute.
"I e-mail my cousins in Pakistan and chat on MSN," Nabeel said, referring to Microsoft's popular instant messenger service. "If I had the choice, I'd rather do it on the computer."
You didn't do anything wrong, the url gives a currrent date. Looks to me as if CBS is pulling up out-dated trivia to post.
OK...I'm new to posting articles, so I'm terrified of doing something wrong!
I really don't wanna get zotted, even temporarily. ;-)
Im glad you're overcoming your fear to post articles for the rest of us to read. I'd be embarrassed to tell you how many goofs I've made.
I don't disagree with any of that. I also believe that writing things out on paper forces one to think through their ideas in a way much different from when one uses word processing.
Before I "met" the pc, I used to write my papers on a pad. I'd write out lengthy sections, then go back later to revise using separate pages. Eventually I'd type the whole thing up. Nowadays, however, because I'm able to instantly edit using word processing, I'm constantly second guessing every sentence, every paragraph, every page. Word processing, far from improving my creative "flow," has actually impeded it!
My father, who learned cursive in high school in the 1920s, wrote with a lovely hand. My grandfather, educated in Europe before the turn of the 20th century, wrote in what's called an "Italian chancery" hand -- beautiful, but it took real getting used to. I still have a dip pen, with a mother of pearl stem (I guess you can't call it a barrel if it's not a fountain pen) which my grandmother on my mother's side used; I recall her writing with it as late as 1960.
Not to nitpick, but didn't Thomas Jefferson write it? I thought Hancock was merely(!!) the first to sign it.
Clare and Joseph HATE writing cursive, and their penmanship has suffered since they left school. I've just ordered some 'Italic' handwriting books to see if they'd be easier and make more sense to them.
It's hopeless... I did those Italic books, but it's too slow for taking notes in class and everything else I type. I just don't write by hand, so my handwriting won't improve.
It's legible, though, which my dad's isn't. Mom has nice cursive, the rest of us are hopeless. Homeschoolers are usually bad at it, yes, but public schools seem to be realizing how little it matters too.
*snicker* The only "D" I ever got in my life was in Penmanship, in Catholic School, where it was really important. My Daddy laughed his head off because his handwriting was awful! Mama got mad at him because she wanted to stress how bad it was that I got such a grade, and her writing was lovely! I did get better, though, when I write fast, it's terrible!
Penmenship was only taught through 3rd grade at my son's public school in GA. When we began to homeschool in 5th grade it was reintroduced. ;)
ROTFL!
Admittedly the cover of the book is pretty ugly. I guess pretty handwriting only gets you so far...
I lived in a small town, so our school district always had us pick up our workbooks and other stuff at the high school a couple of weeks before school started. I always thought it was really neat to go to the high school when I was in elementary school. They had all of supplies laid out by grade. I can't remember if my parents had to pay a fee or not. I just remember the look, smell and feel of brand new Crayola crayons and that neat blue pen! And who can forget the yellow, lined paper with wood chips imbedded in it!! LOL!!
I'd add to that list: it increases others' opinons of you, especially those with whom you share written communication.
I just ordered a book about Italic handwriting for my kids!
Hah! That's the one I'd had ordered!! I also got the Level F books for Clare and Joseph. My friend in Japan had it for her kids, and it looked pretty good!
Oh, cool! Hope you enjoy it! I liked it...but then I was self-motivated.
I didn't realize just how much it had changed my handwriting until recently I went back and was looking through some of my old journals and could barely read my own writing. It was atrocious! It still ain't perfect, but it's legible, which is the most important thing.
Same here (EE). I hate cursive to the MAX. Takes too long, gives me writer's cramp, and at the end of it I'll still have to type it anyway. I do all caps, except for case-sensitive stuff like email addresses.
Curse cursive. It's probably a commie plot anyway (/sarcasm).
Me? I generally print all caps. My handwriting has always been awful and my signature isn't comprehensible.
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