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Cursive writing is being phased out of the educational system in a lot of parts of the country. I keep hearing people freak out about this, but I don't really see the point of teaching cursive writing to our kids. We're not exactly dipping pens in ink these days, so what's the big deal? Printing is so much easier to read anyways, and with all the time that is wasted on teaching cursive, kids could be learning something useful like typing or another language.
Give me an actual legit reason for teaching cursive writing to all students. To me it's seems like teaching old English. It obviously would be important for a historian or something of that nature, but it has no place in modern society IMO.
It improves reading and spelling ability. When printing, some children write so erratically that it is difficult to determine where one word ends and another begins. Cursive, on the other hand, requires children to write from left to right so that the letters will join in proper sequence; therefore, it is easier to read. It also aids with spelling through the connectivity of the letters. This helps the child to see words as a whole instead of seeing separate letters (as in printing). Additionally, the hand acquires knowledge of spelling patterns through movements that are used repeatedly in spelling. This is the same phenomenon that occurs when pianists or typists learn patterns of hand movements through continued repetition.
It's good for signatures - which are done in cursive. If you only print your name on a form or a check - it can be more easily duplicated. Signatures are more unique.
It improves reading and spelling ability. When printing, some children write so erratically that it is difficult to determine where one word ends and another begins. Cursive, on the other hand, requires children to write from left to right so that the letters will join in proper sequence; therefore, it is easier to read. It also aids with spelling through the connectivity of the letters. This helps the child to see words as a whole instead of seeing separate letters (as in printing). Additionally, the hand acquires knowledge of spelling patterns through movements that are used repeatedly in spelling. This is the same phenomenon that occurs when pianists or typists learn patterns of hand movements through continued repetition.
That's interesting about the relationship between spelling and muscle memory. I'm a musician, so I could definitely see that; however, I think the same could be said for typing. No?
I learned how to write in cursive over 30 years ago. I can still do it today, but I honestly haven't really written anything in cursive outside of my signature since grade school. Muscle memory has allowed me to retain my ability to write in cursive if I ever decided to do so, but I definitely have trouble reading anything in cursive. This is particularly true if it's something that's been written by someone my parents age or older, as the cursive they learned was much different than the cursive I learned.
anyways, I like your argument. It does justify a purpose for teaching cursive handwriting, although I still feel the time spent teaching it could be used for more useful things.
For writing pen letters. Oops..excuse me no one does that anymore(except my wife and I and our pen friends). I still think that it is not a bad idea to teach cursive writing. Why teach simple math anymore, we have calculators now. But it is a good idea to teach simple math as well.
Of the, say, 52 shapes (upper and lowercase letters), I know how to 'write' exactly 8 of them, and they're the ones that compose my first and last name. Dead skill. I thought this had been removed from curricula ages ago.
Here's a first hand experience that might interest you.
I'm British. Growing up we had a similar system to the system currently used in the US. You would start off with print letters then you would gradually move to cursive. Seemed perfectly logical to me at the time. First start to form the individual letters then over time, learn to join them up. To me it just seemed a logical, natural and a speedier way of writing when you didn't have to take your pen off the paper to form each letter.
By the time my kids went to school things had changed. They had eliminated teaching print altogether and kids had to learn cursive from the word go. I have three kids (two of them still at elementary school). They all had varying degrees of success with this. My son, the oldest found it extremely difficult to form the letters. He could not for the life of him get the letters the right height, size or shape. He's a bright kid but really struggled with it. Writing would either take him hours of concentration, or the writing would be illegible if he had to do it quickly. My two daughters fared slightly better.
We moved to the US almost three years ago - the kids (all still elementary age at the time) had to revert to writing in print as that's what the other kids were being taught. I can't begin to describe the improvement in my sons handwriting when he was allowed to print the letters. Neat, tidy, fabulous. We were amazed at the improvement. Now his handwriting is beautiful - both in print and cursive.
I think the UK education system made a huge mistake eliminating teaching print. It's like trying to teach someone to run before they can walk. The justification was that kids found the move to cursive 'confusing' which is complete and utter nonsense. I never found it confusing in the least.
To me cursive is just a natural progression from print. But print definitely needs to be taught first.
OP,
When writing a professional report, say you're career is in the LE community or the military, Law or Health Care, you better to do it in a professional manner or you can kiss your career good bye, most companies take reports very seriously. Thank you..
OP,
When writing a professional report, say you're career is in the LE community or the military, Law or Health Care, you better to do it in a professional manner or you can kiss your career good bye, most companies take reports very seriously. Thank you..
So what's the professional manner? I would assume printed, being that so many people under the age of 35 can't read or write in cursive. I don't know about other parts of the country, but I grew up in the PNW and the school I attended went to d'nealian in the mid 80's. I would think that the military wouldn't even allow cursive writing on reports these days, as most of the kids joining the military these days can't interpret it. Add to this the fact that anyone that has learned English as a second language has no idea how to read cursive writing.
Also, I'm a physical therapist, and I can assure you that nothing in the rehab center that I work for is written in cursive outside of a personal note by one of the older secretaries or nurses. Any type of actual document or report is done in print. There is no rule to this that I know of, but all of our employees use print for everything but our signatures.
Last edited by lucky4life; 03-27-2014 at 01:13 PM..
Cursive writing is being phased out of the educational system in a lot of parts of the country. I keep hearing people freak out about this, but I don't really see the point of teaching cursive writing to our kids. We're not exactly dipping pens in ink these days, so what's the big deal? Printing is so much easier to read anyways, and with all the time that is wasted on teaching cursive, kids could be learning something useful like typing or another language.
Give me an actual legit reason for teaching cursive writing to all students. To me it's seems like teaching old English. It obviously would be important for a historian or something of that nature, but it has no place in modern society IMO.
Much of history is available but to those who have the ability to read cursive writing.
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