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Teaching cursive handwriting

Should kids still be taught how to write in cursive?

  • Absolutely - it's very important

  • Yes - it's not the most important thing, but it's a necessary skill

  • Yes - but it's not the most important thing or a necessary skill - it's an extra fun thing to learn

  • Maybe - I can could take it or leave it

  • No - it's not necessary or important

  • Something else


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Not if you approach the question logically.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of school?

Then ask yourself, what is teh value of cursive writing.

Now you have an objective template from which to see the obvious answer.

Nope -- still an opinion.
 
I remember my second grade teacher saying we needed to learn to write in cursive so we could write college papers in the future. Of course, no one wanted anything but papers typed in Times New Roman via Microsoft Word by the time my college years rolled around. I think cursive has gone the way of calligraphy in the sense that it’s a neat skill to have but it’s completely unnecessary in the digital era.
It's faster than printing and I can't imagine a world where we only rely on keyboards to communicate.

The other thing important about learning cursive is being able to read it. The majority of primary historical records are written in cursive--even the census. All the letters and diaries reaching back to before the Civil War in the trunk in the attic from my ancestors are written in cursive. I'd hate if I couldn't read them.
 
Cursive is obsolete in the age of digital communication.
 
Why does how your letters are formed make a difference? Why is cursive superior to print in your mind?
Both are letters, both should be able to be read and understood. Like I said, cursive isn't hard to learn, and yes, it does come down to style. Put sometimes in life style and form matters. Clearly we use cursive for our signatures which are meant to be official. Use an unfamiliar signature, and sometimes your document or legal form, or your voting registration is rejected. So, cursive has a place in not only business, but official documents. But is also has a place in formal writing and correspondence too. If you hand wrote a formal invitation to someone for a formal event, wouldn't you use cursive?

At some point printing only begins to come off like a first grader wrote the note. It may only for some come down to style, but couldn't the same be said about language too? A person may be able to be understood who speaks only in Ebonics, but at some level, and in professional situations, that person just ends up sounding like an ignorant fool. So, unless coming off like an ignorant fool is important to people, how hard is it to master cursive? Pride is a necessary element to success.

Why do we use forks and knives to eat with, when clearly we could just sit around on the ground eating with our hands?
 
It's faster than printing and I can't imagine a world where we only rely on keyboards to communicate.

The other thing important about learning cursive is being able to read it. The majority of primary historical records are written in cursive--even the census. All the letters and diaries reaching back to before the Civil War in the trunk in the attic from my ancestors are written in cursive. I'd hate if I couldn't read them.

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in it's original handwriting?

Typing is faster than printing or cursive handwriting for me.
 
Both are letters, both should be able to be read and understood. Like I said, cursive isn't hard to learn, and yes, it does come down to style. Put sometimes in life style and form matters. Clearly we use cursive for our signatures which are meant to be official. Use an unfamiliar signature, and sometimes your document or legal form, or your voting registration is rejected.

When has that ever happened? When has someone scribbled or printed their signature and been given back the document and forced to write it in perfectly formed cursive letters or it isn't valid?

So, cursive has a place in not only business, but official documents. But is also has a place in formal writing and correspondence too. If you hand wrote a formal invitation to someone for a formal event, wouldn't you use cursive?

Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn't bother me to get a printed handwritten note or invitation. But, as we all know, almost all formal invitations are created with technology, not your hand.

At some point printing only begins to come off like a first grader wrote the note.

In your opinion. I had several college professors who only wrote in all caps.

It may only for some come down to style, but couldn't the same be said about language too? A person may be able to be understood who speaks only in Ebonics, but at some level, and in professional situations, that person just ends up sounding like an ignorant fool. So, unless coming off like an ignorant fool is important to people, how hard is it to master cursive? Pride is a necessary element to success.

Why do we use forks and knives to eat with, when clearly we could just sit around on the ground eating with our hands?

:rolleyes:
 
When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in it's original handwriting?

Typing is faster than printing or cursive handwriting for me.
When is the last time I read the 1850 census? Yesterday.

Typing is faster than writing for me, too. That's why when I journal, I write--in cursive. It slows me down a little so I can catch up with my thoughts. But it's much faster than printing.
 
I support teaching it, but I wouldn't call it necessary.
 
Why?

Cursive is obsolete.

Obsolete? Strange term to use.

I find it laughable that there are people who feel cursive it too hard to learn, and hard to read. These must be people who have trouble figuring out the instructions on a box of sugary breakfast cereal.
 
Obsolete? Strange term to use.

I find it laughable that there are people who feel cursive it too hard to learn, and hard to read. These must be people who have trouble figuring out the instructions on a box of sugary breakfast cereal.
Nobody feels it is too hard to learn. You just made that up.

That isnt the issue. The term obsolete fits perfectly.

Cursive is obsolete in the age of digital communication. Just a fact.

Why learn something that is obsolete?

Should we all teach our kids to drive a horse and buggy as well as a car when they are in their teens?
 
Nobody feels it is too hard to learn. You just made that up.

That isnt the issue. The term obsolete fits perfectly.

Cursive is obsolete in the age of digital communication. Just a fact.

Why learn something that is obsolete?

Well, if that is going to be your argument, then why teach standard printing, reading from the pages of a book, or writing out mathemtic equations on paper? We could basicaly do all functions and communication on some device.

But one of the problems the world is facing right now it that far too much of how we communicate, conduct business, and are educated is all digital. There is no default back to basic learned skills and principals; people are effectively then left without any survival skill sets. It is like people who would end up freezing to death when lost in the wilderness because they don't know how to build a fire. What happens when the power goes out during a prolonged emergency? Can't charge a smart phone for days, what do people do then?




Should we all teach our kids to drive a horse and buggy as well as a car when they are in their teens?

I don't see many buggies around unless I am in Amish country. But I can tell you that just like knowing how to swim, how to build a fire and a shelter, my kids all know how to reasonably handle and ride a horse, even as we don't own horses. These are basic skill sets, like hunting, fishing, and riding a bike.

We are really in trouble when we rely so much on digital transactions. Not only due to cyber criminal threats, but to power loss. Writing is as important to our human history and our development as learning to build a fire. The human brain in children develops more efficiently by tactile motor skills combined with sight and hearing. When we were kids we learned to spell, and how to group like colors with wooden blocks, something you will say is obsolete because the same things can be done with digital devise. But what I am saying, is that in children not having the tactile physical attribute actually stunts the developing connections from brain, to nerves and to muscles. Learning to write in cursive, how to form shapes and lines correctly, was part of learning, and why it was mastered by the 4th grade, and only improved on with practice over time. Like learning to play a musical instrument. All of music today could be learned digitally, but there is something more to brain development learning how to properly form that note on string or other instrument.

Not teaching cursive has anything to do with it being obsolete. It is due to political pressure to give mainly Black urban students a much easier path in education because they are not able to compete against Asian and White students. So, today schools are trying to remove things which they feel only further puts many urban Black kids at a disadvantage, like removing math, or not demanding proper spelling and grammar to pass a course of elementary study. That is what this is about, that and wanting more time in class for other social indoctrination.

Maybe we need to go back to segregated schools, but not by race, by expectations for excellence. One side wants to spend class hours talking about how they are victims and how to protest in style, and the other side wants their kids to learn math and science. The Chinese must be laughing at us for giving up on cursive. A culture where writing is VERY complex, but they still teach Chinese letters even in the digital age.
 
I don't see many buggies around unless I am in Amish country.
You don't see cursive around either.

No one writes with quill pens anymore.

Knowing how to type on a keyboard, and print with a ball point, is what is necessary these days.......not driving a horse and buggy or writing with a quill pen.
 
Not teaching cursive has anything to do with it being obsolete. It is due to political pressure to give mainly Black urban students a much easier path in education because they are not able to compete against Asian and White students. So, today schools are trying to remove things which they feel only further puts many urban Black kids at a disadvantage, like removing math, or not demanding proper spelling and grammar to pass a course of elementary study. That is what this is about, that and wanting more time in class for other social indoctrination.
I was with you until this. It's not true. My granddaughter's very white suburban school stopped teaching cursive over ten years ago. It's not about race.
Thank goodness my son taught her. I don't have to print the note on her birthday card as if she were in 2nd grade.
 
You don't see cursive around either.

No one writes with quill pens anymore.

Knowing how to type on a keyboard, and print with a ball point, is what is necessary these days.......not driving a horse and buggy or writing with a quill pen.
No reason kids can't learn both.
 
No reason kids can't learn both.
Right. No reason kids can't learn to drive a horse and buggy and an automobile.......and learn to become a blacksmith and a computer programmer.

But with only so many hours in the day we have to prioritize sometimes.
 
I don't think kids should spend as much time on it as I did but it is a valuable small motor skill. It helps develop a different level of hand-eye coordination than video games or typing and encourages different neural connections as well.
 
No reason kids can't learn both.
Plus. I don't know if you have ever taught kids, but they are brilliant, and the first thing they will ask you is why? Why does cursive matter? You can't give them a good answer, and lying will destroy your credibility.they can see through that.

It might work as an elective, otherwise it is wholly obsolete.
 
It is far more useful to teach keyboarding and digital signature processes than cursive...
 
Right. No reason kids can't learn to drive a horse and buggy and an automobile.......and learn to become a blacksmith and a computer programmer.

But with only so many hours in the day we have to prioritize sometimes.
Cursive is not the equivalent of driving a horse and buggy. It has been the predominant form of writing for hundreds of years, and we still need to decipher it, even if we don't use it as much. Printing is slow. No one prints notes and comments. They write. It's faster.
 
Plus. I don't know if you have ever taught kids, but they are brilliant, and the first thing they will ask you is why? Why does cursive matter? You can't give them a good answer, and lying will destroy your credibility.they can see through that.

It might work as an elective, otherwise it is wholly obsolete.
Do kids take all their notes on their laptops now? No notebooks divided into sections and filled with college lined paper? I still see those things donated and sold as school supplies. If kids did ask, I would assure them it's faster and we could even have a race about it to prove it.
 
I chose #2 but I'm hesitant to say it's a necessary skill. I know we're moving towards electronic signatures for important documents but I don't see how actual physical documents could just be acceptable without a signature.
 
Cursive is not the equivalent of driving a horse and buggy. It has been the predominant form of writing for hundreds of years, and we still need to decipher it, even if we don't use it as much. Printing is slow. No one prints notes and comments. They write. It's faster.
I have always printed. But that is neither here nor there.

I think cursive is just as obsolete as driving a horse and buggy or having an "ice box" in your kitchen.

When I was a kid every town still had an ice house that delivered ice.

Not a sustainable business these days.

Teachers are expected to cover innumerable "standards" each year and have 180 school days to do it.

Wasting time on something that is no longer a "standard" means neglecting something that is.

If people want to learn cursive or calligraphy they can take an elective.
 
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