Community Chat

[SilleeMee]

The person who sent that card should have just texted him an E-CARD! LOL Never had  problem reading those...heee

[bri20]

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@motherinlaw wrote:

Every legal document requires a signature....in cursive. Are we going back to the days when an "X" will do?  This is not progress.

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You do not have to sign your name in cursive.  It's not a legal requirement.

[occasionalrain]

It doesn't have to be this or that. I text and email when that is appropriate. However, they are shoddy forms of communication especially for some situations. Sometimes writing, phoning, or meeting is preferred.

If there isn't time to produce well educated people then year round education rather than dumbed down education should be implemented.

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[WSfan]

Did not read all 12 pages, but here is my 2 cents worth.....I am sad that cursive is not being taught at some schools any longer and the possibility of it not being taught for good, because things such as CORE math is taking it's place. I am also sad that if this is the case, that the possibility of my grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on down the line, will not be able to read their ancestors letters to loved ones during the wars, recipes, postcards, greeting cards, and even the names of relatives written on the back of old photographs. They will not be able to read our historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Gettysburg Address, etc. What a shame, just because it is becoming "obsolete". Many things from generations before them will be in a foreign language to them. Cursive will become what hieroglyphics and other ancient writings were until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. Yes, this will happen gradually,but it will happen, all because cursive is 'useless' and our schools don't have the time to teach it. It's not as if the US is turning out a ton of stellar students; we're not doing a terrific job here. Have you ever watched videos of college kids not being able to name things that they should have learned in grammar school???

[SaRina]

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@Starpolisher wrote:

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@SaRina wrote:

You can spin the importance of cursive writing any way you wish.....as can be done with just about anything.  There are many other activities that can hone fine motor skills....   Unfortunately, students today are sorely lacking in math and English skills, and I'd rather see every extra moment of classroom time being spent on the core subjects.  If time is allotted for art, that's when students can learn cursive, even calligraphy.   Priorities.

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Some think that both math and English skills are no longer that important due to technology.

We have machines that can do math for us and with English, whether it be receptive or productive, it tends to get "dumbed down" and is more accepted that way due to social media.

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I think I can say, with certainty, that math and English skills are a heck of a lot more important than learning cursive writing, especially since people already know how to write.

I also do not know of anyone who walks into a job interview with machines to do their speaking and take their aptitude tests.

[DoneTryin]

I can see both sides of the discussion, though I am partial to continuing to teach children cursive style, either at school or at home by family members.

What I don't understand is all the talk about teaching cursive taking up valuable time that should be spent on teaching the basics of reading, writing, math & science.

I learned cursive as a child in the 50s.  Somehow, we also had time to learn how to read, how to write decent sentences, basic math & basic science.What has changed that there isn't time now to teach cursive at school?

Our weakness in those days was that girls were generally not encouraged to pursue math & science because the conventional thought was that boys had the brains for those topics while girls were supposedly better at languages & arts..  For me, & many other women of my generation (& older), it was "acceptable" to get just passing grades in those subjects.  We certainly know better now, & thank goodness for that!

[SaRina]

@DoneTryin......Absolutely no snark intended here, but do you really not understand that the 1950's classroom is not the same as the classroom of today?

[jaxs mom]

I don't think you had all the standarized assessment tests and the requirement for teachers to teach to the test in the 1950s like they do today. 

[DoneTryin]

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@SaRina wrote:

@DoneTryin......Absolutely no snark intended here, but do you really not understand that the 1950's classroom is not the same as the classroom of today?

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@SaRina  Yes, I realize that.  I still want to know where/how schoolday time is spent.

[Mellie32]

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@DoneTryin wrote:

I can see both sides of the discussion, though I am partial to continuing to teach children cursive style, either at school or at home by family members.

What I don't understand is all the talk about teaching cursive taking up valuable time that should be spent on teaching the basics of reading, writing, math & science.

I learned cursive as a child in the 50s.  Somehow, we also had time to learn how to read, how to write decent sentences, basic math & basic science.What has changed that there isn't time now to teach cursive at school?

Our weakness in those days was that girls were generally not encouraged to pursue math & science because the conventional thought was that boys had the brains for those topics while girls were supposedly better at languages & arts..  For me, & many other women of my generation (& older), it was "acceptable" to get just passing grades in those subjects.  We certainly know better now, & thank goodness for that!

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Here was my schedule this past year:

8:30 - 8:45 -- Attendance, lunch money, homework collection while the kids do their math seatwork and read independently when done.

8:45 - 9:45 -- Reading & Spelling--  shared reading with a big book and words/sounds of the week, reading textbook, phonics worksheet, spelling word practice

Bathroom break

10:00 -- PE, Art or Music

10:45 - 11:15 -- Writing --- forming sentences, using the word wall to help remember how to spell harder words, creating stories on a topic, writing non-fiction "essays", sharing your writing (one day a week we go to the computer lab to practice keyboarding skills)

Recess and Lunch

Bathroom Break

12:30 -- Guided Reading and Independent Centers

1:30 -- Math

2:30 -- Science/Social Studies

3:00 -- buh bye