Community Chat

[Mellie32]

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@hopi wrote:

Keyboarding is an easy skill - in fact everyone would learn it in "old days" for 40 minutes in  20  week period.  Obviously some are not is minding the children in their classroom but putting them in front of a program and going to play on the internet.

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I'm sorry --- did you just compare learning keyboarding skills on a PC to learning how to use a typewriter?  C'mon.  

[Mellie32]

And for the record, I allow any students of mine to teach themselves cursive handwriting in independent centers.  They love it and teach themselves very well.

[alliswell]

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@Mellie32 wrote:

Actually, the thing that bothers me more is that many teachers don't require their students to choose and read books independently.  Now THAT is a devastating turn of events in education.

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As much of an impact as a teacher has, I think a child is most influenced by their surroundings at home.  I attribute my love of reading to the fact that  everyone in my family -- from grandparents to siblings -- were constantly reading, reading, reading, whether it was the newspaper, a book, a magazine or the comics.  My dad taught me to read pointing out the dialogue of Little Lulu or Blondie comics in the Sunday paper.

[occasionalrain]

Is this elimination of cursive writing worldwide? Have the French, British, German, et el eliminated it too?

[Mellie32]

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@alliswell wrote:

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@Mellie32 wrote:

Actually, the thing that bothers me more is that many teachers don't require their students to choose and read books independently.  Now THAT is a devastating turn of events in education.

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Actually as much of an impact as a teacher has, I think child is most influenced by their surroundings.  I attribute my love of reading to the fact that  everyone in my family -- from grandparents to siblings -- were constantly reading, reading, reading, whether it was the newspaper, a book, a magazine or the comics.  My dad taught me to read pointing out the dialogue of Little Lulu or Blondie comics in the Sunday paper.

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And many kids don't have that experience at all -- so we need to give it to them at school.  

[Maudelynn]

Like everything else, there are limited resources and limited amount of time to educate.  Why should we teach subjects that have no application in real life?  No one hand-writes any more.  Everything is done via computer.  We don't teach Latin any longer because no one uses it. We don't teach needlework, because it is no longer necessary for women to know how to do it.  Of course, if you want to learn any of these obsolete skills, you're free to get instruction on your own.

[Mellie32]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

I have cook books that formerly belonged to my mother and grandmother. When I see written notations in the margins the writing is instantly recognizable and so part of each of them that it takes me back to their kitchens, reminds me of happy times spent there.

Printing is generic, could have been put there by anyone.

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Also wrong --- each of my students prints and I can tell whose paper it is if they don't have their name on it.  Handwriting is distinctive to the individual whether it's cursive or printing.

[QVCkitty1]

I know, I know, cursive is old school, fine. You have to remember, when we learned to write, it was a step up and printing was something a child did. We all move on. but habits are hard to break, and In my opinion, a handwritten note is elegant.

[alliswell]

@hovis:  You started quite a discussion here!!! 

[ms traditional]

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@Maudelynn wrote:

Like everything else, there are limited resources and limited amount of time to educate.  Why should we teach subjects that have no application in real life?  No one hand-writes any more.  Everything is done via computer.  We don't teach Latin any longer because no one uses it. We don't teach needlework, because it is no longer necessary for women to know how to do it.  Of course, if you want to learn any of these obsolete skills, you're free to get instruction on your own.

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aha!  no wonder the level of vocabulary has deteriorated: no one knows Latin.   oh, i am so glad i grew up when i did -  i can do math in my head, write a grammatically correct sentence, function with or without a computer and...........do needlepoint.