7 yo in trouble for writing in cursive

[sailorstitch]

OMG!

http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Little-Girl-Gets-Trouble-Writing-Cursive-38503998?ref=yfp

I understand most schools have (or are) doing away with cursive. But what is wrong with using it if you know it?

I was this girl's polar opposite in the late '80s. I started learning cursive in 2nd grade. By 3rd grade we were required to use it all the time. I hated it! (In my defense, I'm left handed.) And I can be very stubborn. I remember getting points taken off because I printed my name on a spelling test.

I understand why I was made to write in cursive when I didn't want to. I needed to learn it. But what is the point of making a girl print if she knows and prefers cursive?

sailorstitch

 

[disykat]

Argh. I saw that article and thought it was ridiculous. The teacher of a 7 yr old is probably charged with teaching printing. The rule in the classroom on papers is probably names written in proper printing. In what way did the child "get in trouble?" From what was shown, it looked like child was reminded that they had been asked numerous times to print. Putting something in red pen is not a punishment.

There was no indication that said anything about "disallowing cursive," the child was simply asked to print and was not following directions. I've always taught cursive, most teachers of 3rd and 4th grade that I know do as well. However, when I teaching K-2, I teach printing and require it on papers. When I teach cursive, sometimes I require that.

IMO, this sounds like another "how dare that horrible teacher..." hullabaloo.

 

[manning]

Print your name on the signature line.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Putting something in red pen is not a punishment.

The backlash against red is a peeve of mine too. The point is to use a color easily distinguishable from both the photocopied worksheet and the child's pen or pencil. Red is simply really easy to see.

I suppose the teacher might be required to take a "handwriting" grade from their papers, and one small piece of the big, complicated rubric is probably "prints name legibly," and she's frustrated. But, I do disagree with pushing it.

As a teacher, this not something I'd risk losing a student's spark over. I'd be encouraging her to go above and beyond requirements on her papers, and simply ask her to print her name on a separate sheet of paper once for the silly grade.

As a parent, I would be politely asking the reason for this rule.

 

[fly girl]

Nothing is wrong with writing in cursive. I don't think that should be the point of this story (which it is).

To me, the point is this: the student was told repeatedly by the teacher to print her name. She is not following directions. I love how the parents conveniently forgot about that little nugget of info and went straight to it's not my kids fault.

Following directions is important. She repeatedly didn't. Hence the note.

If it was my child I'd tell her she needed to start following the teachers directions. Period. End of story.


ETA -- is it a silly rule to print? Probably. But how many seemingly ridiculous rules/policies do we follow as adults at work? A lot! Just because you may not like it you do it anyway because it's what was asked of you.

 

[kamik86]

My guess on why this is an issue:

In second grade its very common to

• Give one student all the papers and ask them to hand them back to the class
• Have students swap work to check it.
• Have students work together on an assignment.
• Have students write something on the board for everyone to see

Why is her cursive a problem? Because none of the other students know how to read it, since its not in the curriculum the teacher can't take time out to teach everyone how to read it. So everything would be much simpler if this child chose to follow the directions.

I was the kid that would ignore directions and argue with the teacher if I ddn't see the point to a rule, but in this case, there could very well be a good reason.

I think second grade may be a good place to learn that sometimes you can't do whatever you want but you have to do something to make life easier for everyone else.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Nothing is wrong with writing in cursive. I don't think that should be the point of this story (which it is).

To me, the point is this: the student was told repeatedly by the teacher to print her name. She is not following directions. I love how the parents conveniently forgot about that little nugget of info and went straight to it's not my kids fault.

Following directions is important. She repeatedly didn't. Hence the note.

If it was my child I'd tell her she needed to start following the teachers directions. Period. End of story.


ETA -- is it a silly rule to print? Probably. But how many seemingly ridiculous rules/policies do we follow as adults at work? A lot! Just because you may not like it you do it anyway because it's what was asked of you.

Exactly.

 

[Domo]

We called it 'joined-up writing' and only learnt it to a basic degree, not to the point of calligraphy.

 

[aprilchem]

My DS8 got in trouble last year for writing in cursive on his in-class work. They don't teach cursive until 3rd grade here, and although he was forming the letters properly, it made it difficult for them to do peer grading and such because other children couldn't read it.

I told him to stop. When he did it again, I told him he would lose all privileges at home and go to bed immediately after dinner if I saw it on his take-home papers again. We didn't have another instance of in-class work with cursive writing on it. He still enjoys practicing cursive at home, but understands that it wasn't appropriate for school at that point.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

If at least part of the point of an assessment is to check a student's printing penmanship, writing in cursive doesn't allow you to assess the student's printing. It would be like having a drawing assignment in art class and making a painting instead.

 

[Mizzoufan]

This girl should be praised!!! Shame on her teacher

 

[PollyannaMom]

Nothing is wrong with writing in cursive. I don't think that should be the point of this story (which it is).

To me, the point is this: the student was told repeatedly by the teacher to print her name. She is not following directions. I love how the parents conveniently forgot about that little nugget of info and went straight to it's not my kids fault.

Following directions is important. She repeatedly didn't. Hence the note.

If it was my child I'd tell her she needed to start following the teachers directions. Period. End of story.


ETA -- is it a silly rule to print? Probably. But how many seemingly ridiculous rules/policies do we follow as adults at work? A lot! Just because you may not like it you do it anyway because it's what was asked of you.

I'm usually like that too. My own DS went through all the "Why do we have to do complete sentences?"-type complaints, and my standard answer was "Because it's her classroom, not mine. Suck it up."

But this particular one bothers me because so much in our schools nowadays is about getting everyone to the same standard, and no further. I think stopping a kid from using cursive, without a explanation, is teaching her not to try harder, not to do extra, that those sort of things aren't wanted.

My guess on why this is an issue:

In second grade its very common to

• Give one student all the papers and ask them to hand them back to the class
• Have students swap work to check it.
• Have students work together on an assignment.
• Have students write something on the board for everyone to see

Why is her cursive a problem? Because none of the other students know how to read it, since its not in the curriculum the teacher can't take time out to teach everyone how to read it. So everything would be much simpler if this child chose to follow the directions.

I was the kid that would ignore directions and argue with the teacher if I didn't see the point to a rule, but in this case, there could very well be a good reason.

I think second grade may be a good place to learn that sometimes you can't do whatever you want but you have to do something to make life easier for everyone else.

I do think this is a good point. It's a valid reason, and if the girl received such an explanation (preferably at home, not in front of the other kids) I think it would be perfectly OK to ask that of her. But right now, I think she's probably just confused.

 

[Dawnlight]

Some kids have a difficult time with printing and cursive is easier for them. Some schools, I believe Montessori is one, teach cursive before print.

Here's an interesting article:

https://www.logicofenglish.com/2-uncategorised/122-why-teach-cursive-first

I don't agree with the "teacher said, must obey" approach to students. I have a friend whose older elementary son, who recently relocated from his home country to a new country on the other side of the world, pee his pants because the teacher said "no" to his using the bathroom. Should he have blindly obeyed or gotten up to take care of his needs?

Teachers can be wrong, and students aren't there just to make their lives easier; they are not there to comply with every whim of the teacher. This is absolute nonsense. On one hand teachers say they want parental involvement with the kids, yet time after time I see the complete opposite. They want parents out and disengaged.

 

[Miskey]

I think the title of this thread should be "7 yo in trouble for disobeying teacher and continuing to write name in cursive in spite of many warnings not to".

Love how the facebook post has to throw in the fact that mom is a veteran. What in the world does that have to do with anything??

 

[kamik86]

Some kids have a difficult time with printing and cursive is easier for them. Some schools, I believe Montessori is one, teach cursive before print.

Here's an interesting article:

https://www.logicofenglish.com/2-uncategorised/122-why-teach-cursive-first

I don't agree with the "teacher said, must obey" approach to students. I have a friend whose older elementary son, who recently relocated from his home country to a new country on the other side of the world, pee his pants because the teacher said "no" to his using the bathroom. Should he have blindly obeyed or gotten up to take care of his needs?

Teachers can be wrong, and students aren't there just to make their lives easier; they are not there to comply with every whim of the teacher. This is absolute nonsense. On one hand teachers say they want parental involvement with the kids, yet time after time I see the complete opposite. They want parents out and disengaged.

As I said before I definitely was not one to blindly follow my teachers. I had quite a few that hated me as a kid because I was well read and would often correct them when they said something that wasn't true. (One I remember was a teacher teaching a section of history on the titanic who said it hit the iceberg on April 15th. No it hit on the 14th late at night... it sank on the 15th a few hours later. )

However in this case I can see why on some things they would want the student to print. I would hope the teacher explained it (I definitely had teachers that thought explaining themselves to a child was beneath them and wouldn't give an explanation until my mom, who worked at the school, asked for one.)

If I was the teacher and the student could print well I would tell her that on certain types of assignments she has to print so the other students can do peer grading etc. Then on assignments that wouldn't be done that way allow her to write in cursive.

If she couldn't print then I would be telling her she had to print all the time... because she does have to learn to be able to do that too. Some standardized tests as well as government forms require everything to be printed.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Some kids have a difficult time with printing and cursive is easier for them. Some schools, I believe Montessori is one, teach cursive before print.

Here's an interesting article:

https://www.logicofenglish.com/2-uncategorised/122-why-teach-cursive-first

I don't agree with the "teacher said, must obey" approach to students. I have a friend whose older elementary son, who recently relocated from his home country to a new country on the other side of the world, pee his pants because the teacher said "no" to his using the bathroom. Should he have blindly obeyed or gotten up to take care of his needs?

Teachers can be wrong, and students aren't there just to make their lives easier; they are not there to comply with every whim of the teacher. This is absolute nonsense. On one hand teachers say they want parental involvement with the kids, yet time after time I see the complete opposite. They want parents out and disengaged.

I think that the situation you describe about your friend's son is way different than not following the directions given for an assignment.

 

[Mizzoufan]

My guess on why this is an issue:

In second grade its very common to

• Give one student all the papers and ask them to hand them back to the class
• Have students swap work to check it.
• Have students work together on an assignment.
• Have students write something on the board for everyone to see

Why is her cursive a problem? Because none of the other students know how to read it, since its not in the curriculum the teacher can't take time out to teach everyone how to read it. So everything would be much simpler if this child chose to follow the directions.

I was the kid that would ignore directions and argue with the teacher if I ddn't see the point to a rule, but in this case, there could very well be a good reason.

I think second grade may be a good place to learn that sometimes you can't do whatever you want but you have to do something to make life easier for everyone else.

I'm sorry so because one little girl is advanced for her age and grade. She should have to limit herself for the sake of her peers? That's nonsense.

 

[Miskey]

I'm sorry so because one little girl is advanced for her age and grade. She should have to limit herself for the sake of her peers? That's nonsense.

So one little girl is so super special she doesn't have to follow rules? If the teacher says to print, then print! What kind of parent would say, "Honey, you don't have to listen to the teacher, you keep doing it the way you want to".

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

I'm sorry so because one little girl is advanced for her age and grade. She should have to limit herself for the sake of her peers? That's nonsense.

To me, the younger grades are just as much about teaching kids how to follow directions, function socially etc... as they are about ABC and 123.

 

[Miskey]

To me, the younger grades are just as much about teaching kids how to follow directions, function socially etc... as they are about ABC and 123.

This!!