Community Chat

[faeriemoon]

I don't think your question is stupid.  I have wondered how people sign their names if they don't know how to write in cursive.

[bluetail fly]

Maybe they will stop teaching math next.  All kids have tablets or phones with calculators.

[proudlyfromNJ]

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@faeriemoon wrote:

I don't think your question is stupid.  I have wondered how people sign their names if they don't know how to write in cursive.

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@faeriemoon  Cursive is not required for signatures.

[Zaimee]

When Common Core was adopted there was no standard for teaching cursive.

About 10 states added that in.

I taught 4/5 grade ELA (English/Language Arts) for many years in a gifted program and taught cursive in Miami, Florida.

But, sadly, as the older teachers retire, this may not continue. 

In education, all the eggs are in one basket....the Standardized TEST.

This rules what is taught. No cursive on the test!

I retired in June.

[mac116]

I am a retired 3rd grade teacher who taught cursive for 40 years. The kids were always so excited to learn, even though it was difficult for some of them to learn because of fine motor development.  Toward the end of my career, it became difficult to find a text to use.  Most were out of print.  I think that it is a huge mistake not to continue to teach cursive, if only so that cursive can be READ in the future.

[occasionalrain]

No reason for them to visit The National Archives in DC, they wouldn't be able to read any of the original documents found there. They're virtually illiterate.

[maximillian]

Students in school districts near me do not know how to write in cursive; they are not being taught in school.  I work in retail and have had the experience of young people NOT knowing how to sign their own names.  I have also been told that students are not being taught to tell time on analog clocks or watches.  They all use digital is the rationalization for that.  Schools are being forced to teach skills such as "Shelter in place/active shooter" and of course computer and technology skills.  So, there are only so many hours of instructional time in the school day, week, month and year; Schools are forced to prioritize and make choices on what matters and what to spend time on. 

[Josmad]

My granddaughters are 11 and 13 and they were taught cursive. But my older granddaughter wanted to learn cursive so she started teaching herself before the school did. 

[Mz iMac]

A New Jersey bill would require schoolchildren to be taught cursive handwriting

Assemblywoman Angela McKnight has introduced a bill that would require elementary schools to teach kids how to read and write in the graceful, flowing loops taught to previous generations as a matter of course.

The bill was introduced in the state legislature last month and is heading to the education committee for review.

FULL article:  copy/paste link--->cnn.com/2019/12/08/us/new-jersey-cursive-bill-trnd/index.html

[Icegoddess]

And once we get a generation of people who can no longer read cursive they will have to trust the ones who can to properly transcribe cursive documents for them.  How would they know if they are actually transcribing it correctly, or the way they would prefer that particular document to read?  Of course, many, many adults out there believe that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln actually said that stuff on the memes that get passed around on social media, so we're pretty much on our way there.

I do genealogy, and not using DNA, so I have to read a lot of documents or census records written in old cursive which can be a lot different than the cursive we are accustomed to.  I have found transcrption errors in many a census record.  My older sister will not even look at census records, but lets me do that because she finds it too difficult to read.