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You're trying to tell me that correct spelling being a waste of time isn't synonymous with "doesn't matter."I never said spelling doesn't matter, I said using up all that time on spelling is a waste of time. Kids can learn to spell rather quickly while reading and writing. You can see if a child can spell by reading their papers. You don't need weekly spelling drills, they don't work well at teaching a child to spell. That's been studied for years.
You'll probably hate the way I approach a child's curriculum.
I homeschooled, and my kids all spell better than me. We never had a spelling lesson, not one. Instead my kids wrote stories in clubs through the internet. They made sure they had a story that was well written because it was a reflection of them. They learned whatever they wanted. I wasn't giving weekly tests, or checking there work for errors. They checked it.
My daughter now has a 4.2 gpa and has every year through her university life. She'll graduate with honors in a year as an Engineer. They taught themselves what they needed to know, and with technology that was an easy thing to do. My older daughter is a graphic artists, because she loves art. Spent most of her time perfecting it from a young age. She's landed a great job at a game company in Sweden where her fiancé lives.
One size doesn't fit all. Each student is different, and even my kids differed in their own unique way. The Nordic Countries have a saying, "What ever it takes" and will do whatever they need for each student. Have smaller classrooms, and the same teacher for years. Allow them space and time to learn.
America's "one size fits all approach" is lacking in my opinion. Computers are a must in every classroom because they're apart of daily life now, but if a child doesn't like learning on a computer, then they can try another way. But, to say computers don't catch a homonym is very narrow minded to me. There are a thousand ways to learn grammar. My kids learned it so they wouldn't embarrass themselves in their creative writing clubs, and role playing adventures because they loved it. The computer was just a useful tool to watch instruction. It was efficient.
Cursive writing was never an interest of my children, they never learned it. They've never needed it. If a child wants to learn it, then they will. I don't think it should be required, I think that would be a waste of time. My son has a special interest, pen pals all over the world. He likes traditional mail, so that's what he does. I think it all depends what interests the child has. Then they have the will.
I hope we learn to trust children more, and stop testing them to death. All that's done is take the joy out of learning all these wonderful things and I do hope we stop teaching like we're herding cattle in this country.
My approach isn't for everyone. Whatever works.
If you home-schooled, I think that's great. Results are what matter, and your children seem to have profited greatly from it.
But you're entering into my area of particular expertise when you broach the topic of writing itself. You are mistaken if you think that computers not catching homonym areas is unimportant. I've always earned part of my living editing for publication, and this is because a computer will not catch all the errors. A human must do that, and that human must be able to recognize the error. Sometimes this includes, believe it or not, the grammar of a chemical engineering equation listed under a Figure. Ask your daughter to ask her profs who publish if an editor is required to review their writing. Trust me when I teach you this mantra: If YOU wrote it, you won't catch all the mistakes and need a fresh eye. Period.
As for cursive writing, I wasn't aware either of how significant it is in brain development until about 7 years ago when I had a pediatrician's wife in one of my classes and she researched this. When writing in cursive, you exercise an important part of your brain that is not used when word-processing, and, in fact, there is more cross-hemispherical activity. All sorts of good articles on the cursive debate are out there, but here is a quickie summary: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article...asons-why-cursive-handwriting-good-your-brain
Have you considered the changes to society itself once only a very, very few people can read cursive handwriting? Do we want a society that is a pyramid with only, say, clerics and scholars able to read cursive?