Among Friends

[Mj12]

They DO teach cursive in schools, at least here. And if it wasn't taught, I would teach it myself if needed.

[proudlyfromNJ]

I asked my sister who works in the school system. She said yes, it is taught. 

[qualitygal]

As a BB, we didn't do the phonics.  You are correct.  We learned to spell each word on it's own, not by it's sound.  

I'm 73 too, and we never did phonics.  

[riley1]

I find it sad that kids are no longer taught cursive. How are they going to sign legal documents in the future?

My friend sent a hand written note to her grandson for his birthday. Her daughter called her and told her he could not read it because it was cursive. He was in his late teens! So sad.

[proudlyfromNJ]

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@riley1 wrote:

I find it sad that kids are no longer taught cursive. How are they going to sign legal documents in the future?

My friend sent a hand written note to her grandson for his birthday. Her daughter called her and told her he could not read it because it was cursive. He was in his late teens! So sad.

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@riley1  They are taught cursive in some schools. Legal documents do not require cursive for a signature.

[LTT1]

@Jackhound Mom 

granddaughter is currently in the 1st grade and learning this very subject.

They are learning to spell phonetically...sounding out the letters.

May I say that I was very displeased when they started teaching DD "whole language" reading skills. 

The incidence of difficult-to-sound-out English language words is much smaller than words having easy to sound out syllables, IMO.

The skill of phonetics serves well, in the case of Latin-derived words such as those that comprise the English language.

It also helps to use phonetics when it comes to scoring high on SAT testing.

[Jinlei]

Do kids even learn anything in school anymore?

[ROMARY]

I've said this in the beginning.......It takes much longer to print block letters than it does to write in cursive.

Think of all of the times one has to lift her pen or pencil to print a block letter.  Three strokes for an A, four strokes for an E, etc., etc. 

In my opinion, it's much easier and smoother  (and faster) to write using cursive handwriting. 

[Susan in California]

I was taught phonetically.  But English is a difficult language becaus there are so many exceptions, as well as words with Latin, Greek, Arabic roots and spellings.

In my family, there are great spellers and not- so -great spellers.

I have almost come to believe it is how you are.

I knew a man when I was working in a career who was well read, extremely intelligent,  a leader in every way as well.  But he confessed that he was a terrible speller (and his handwriting was  poor as well).  He said he used spell-check all the time.

ETA:  The people I am referring to are all "Boomers"who went through school when phonics was pretty much the way reading/spelling was taught.

[chiclets]

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@Jackhound Mom wrote:

Are children taught how to spell using phonics/fonics.  We were, and it didn't always work.

Sounding out the word is Not always how it is spelled.

Example Wednesday

Wed Nes Day

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What about the word island.

Is land or I land