Community Chat

[RainyDayGal]

My question is, if they aren't teaching it how will people sign their names?  Legal documents need signatures.  And in some crime instances they uses hand writing analysis, so now will we have hand printing analysis?  And it has been brought up before that who will be able to read the historical documents?  I really just don't even understand the reasoning on this.  Learning it was so much fun I thought.

[IamMrsG]

---

@beckyb1012 wrote:

It is sad to see something disappear like cursive handwriting.  I am fearful that typing will be the only form taught or expected of our future generations.  As long as they can type no one will expect them to even print. 

How sad, but it is to be expected when so many young people would only look at a rotary phone and wonder how it works.

---

You brought back a memory of a staff meeting I attended many years ago (over a decade, actually).  The Youth Group leader reported on a Mission Trip they had just taken.  One of the Youth wanted to phone his parents, but needed instruction when he was faced with a rotary phone.  We staff members sat in stunned silence a few seconds at the thought of someone not knowing how to 'dial.' 

[Plaid Pants2]

Cursive is going the way of the slide rule and abacus.

[Q4u]

Hypothetical situation:  

A young woman was abducted off the streets and held in a house.  Chained to a wall she had no computer, no cell phone, no way to communicate with anyone when her abductor left.  She DID have a small tablet of paper and a crayon and she could just barely reach the window, which was left often 1/4".  Because she couldn't print or write cursive she didn't think she of writing "HELP" on one of the pages and slip it through the slot in the window and have the wind carry her message away.....

Farfetched?  Maybe... but....

[millieshops]

I would wish the kids were taught at least to read cursive -  but truly the hours and hours we spent practicing to have beautiful handwriting?  They need those hours to learn modern science, technology, etc.  I had not 10 minutes of science education until I was in 7th grade -- and then only because my homeroom teacher used to take 10 minutes in the morning to show us a few things.

I hardly ever write in cursive except to sign a few checks, but even most of my money transfers go with modern technolgy.

[Brigitta]

I am a retired second grade teacher. I started teaching cursive right after Thanksgiving  vacation every year. The children loved it! By the time the end of the year rolled around they ALL were able to write completely in cursive. As I taught each letter, they were to use that letter in cursive every time they came to it. Teaching connecting cursive letters was also not difficult.

One of the main reasons that I retired at age 55 with 30 yrs. experience was that the "powers that be" decided that cursive was no longer needed and it was being phased out. How sad! My 19 yr. old grandson (a product of the same school system) can barely write or read cursive. I tried to teach him, but his teachers wanted printing instead and he hardly used it. So it "fell by the wayside".

The public has no idea what teachers are expected to teach. Testing is out of hand and many basics are skiopped over due to "lack of time".

[granddi]

---

@YorkieonmyPillow wrote:

  I read that people who are dyslexic can read cursive much easier than print. People need to know how to read cursive and they need to know how to tell time.

---

Students must be able to gain meaning from symbols such as maps, graphs and charts. If will be more difficult to learn these skills if the student does learn math before being allowed to use a calculator and must learn to use an analog clock before usign a digital watch. 

[excpa]

At least they recognize what it is!   It's a start.  I've always loved calligraphy.  Soon cursive will be an art form and deeply cherished by some.  But what would we do without typos?

[Peaches McPhee]

As with most things, I have mixed feelings about this.  

On the one hand, people used to write in "cooperplate" (I think that is the term).  Very fancy elaborate writing.  There was probably a time when that transitioned out of fashion and younger people could not read it.  None the less it eventually died off, and we all survived.   Same thing now with cursive.  

On the other hand, I am old and I write cursive in notes all the time, including at work.  I occurs to me that someday one of our younger staff members will come to me and say they cannot read my note and that annoys me.   

But, I am leaning toward supporting the transition away from cursive.  If society so deems it, I guess it is for a reason.

[on the bay]

I think that is kind of an ignorant statement-that she coldn't "read" cursive! Its just as easy as reading print if she wanted to try, instead of automatically dismissing it.