Doesn't anyone learn cursive anymore?

[Becky2005]

They start teaching cursive around here in 3rd grade. Then again we have D'Nelian printing which is basically cursive printing -- I was always getting "yelled at" by my DD that I wasn't making my letters correctly when I would write something for her when she was in 1st grade! Geez...sorry my printing doesn't have the "tails" on it that your school requires.

Although, this is really bad as my now 1st grader has problems with writing (he gets OT) and so writing long sentences is a chore for him. One method would be for me to write it in a highlighter and have him copy it. The problem with that is I'm afraid I don't print in D"Nelian and I will just screw him completely up on how to form letters.

I know my 4th grader has trouble with cursive so he is getting OT for that (but that's a long story -- been battling the school since Kindergarten for OT but FINALLY now that they started cursive more -- I got somewhere with them. It wasn't *just* the cursive that made him get OT though.)

I know in 5th grade, it's pretty much expected that you can read/write cursive as the teacher uses that on the board & the kids have to use cursive for their assignments unless they are told they can print.

Then once they get to Middle School (6th - 8th) they can use either from what I can tell from DD's assignments.

 

[Rachie0507]

I remember learning it in 3rd grade. I'm not sure when my kids' school actually teaches it, but DD is in 1st grade and more or less taught herself how. She does a pretty good job with it too.

 

[Disney Ella]

My kids are in fifth grade and started learning cursive in third grade. They are required to use it in all their work.

 

[cardaway]

Personally I think we should drop it and teach kids to print clearly. JMHO.

 

[barkley]

i can tell you it's far from dead at the school my kids attend. they started learning it in 3rd grade, and dd is in 6th and still has a handwriting workbook that she does a page a day in every day. ds has poor small motor skills and his printing is terrible-but when the teacher let him give cursive a try in 2nd (he had been begging since he saw his older sis's handbook) we found he could do beautiful writing-i think it's a matter of it flowing vs. the halting manner of printed writing.

i wish schools would focus more on handwriting-not everything in the work world is done via computer, and when i worked in a profession that had case documentation done via hand it was horrendous when someone had illegible handwriting. it got so bad with staff that my employer started implementing a portion of the hiring process requriing that a potential employee write something for us at the interview (so we knew someone else had'nt prepared it for them).

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

my DD's 3rd grade class started cursive this year - in fact, at the beginning of the year the kids were asked what their favorite thing was and most said learning cursive!!! They are now required to write all of their answers in cursive.

we also went through the D'Nelian "mom you're not printing right" stuff too!!! - then again I am ancient - back in the 60's we didn't do D'Nelian!!

I think kids should be taught to do both well.

 

[jgmklmhem]

Personally I think we should drop it and teach kids to print clearly. JMHO.

I agree. The only thing I write in cursive is my signature (what we would do for signatures would be interesting). I am not allowed to write in cursive for my work. Lab notebooks have to be printed. Cursive is a big no no in most of the science community as far as recorded work goes.

 

[cardaway]

I agree. The only thing I write in cursive is my signature (what we would do for signatures would be interesting). I am not allowed to write in cursive for my work. Lab notebooks have to be printed. Cursive is a big no no in most of the science community as far as recorded work goes.

Everybody's hand writing is still unique not matter what style they use. Not an issue.

 

[Buckalew11]

DD learned in 1st grade. She has beautiful handwriting. After Christmas EVERYTHING was expected in cursive--even spellling tests! They learned the old fashioned way block letter printing and then cursive. Denelian making cursive easier is a big joke to me--my nieces and nephews learned that wayand all have horrible cursive skills because the teachers really didn't fool much with teaching cursive. Even when I learned to do calligraphy, we worked on block lettering first so the theory makes no sense to me but whatever, LOL.

 

[LuvDuke]

Doesn't anyone teach or learn cursive anymore??

I teach 3rd grade, which is when I remember learning cursive. We are not required to teach it at all. I guess I can understand that with everything being on the computer these days, but most of my kids have terrible handwriting!

After spring break we have 9 (yes NINE) days of testing in a row! So I'm planning to teach things in the afternoons that will be relaxing and fun - no heavy duty stuff. I think I'm going to do cursive, the kids are so excited!

Nope, they don't learn cursive. And the reason why is the FCAT doesn't give them the time.

OT, but again, I have to get new glasses because I read " Doesn't anyone learn cursing anymore? It was an art form for my father.

 

[Mkrop]

DS9 is in third grade and he learned print in K and 1st and then in mid 2nd they moved into cursive. They write solely in cursive now. I think we are moving away from things that teach kids fine motor skills and I think that will hurt them in the end. I have DS4 who gets OT for fine motor skills due to low muscle tone in his trunk and have grown to appreciate how fine motor skills need to be developed.

If we do away with cursive, how will people have a signature that is unique to them????

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

My dd is in 3rd grade and they are learning cursive this year. The teacher did tell us during open school night towards the beginning of the year that she would not have a lot of time to devote towards teaching cursive, but they would do it and she would also send home worksheet for the kids to do on their own.

My daughter has held the pencil wrong since she started writing/drawing. No amount of retraining ever worked with her -- she kept ripping off the pencil gripers. Her printing was awful! But her cursive is very nice. The teacher said that might be the case because some kids see it as a completly different thing.

 

[cardaway]

If we do away with cursive, how will people have a signature that is unique to them????

Have you looked at the printing a different people? Uniqueness in handwriting is not exclusive to cursive. In fact, most signatures I have seen can't even be classified as cursive.

 

[DutchsMommy]

My DS is actually learning cursive in kindergarten. They learned all their printed letters and move on to cursive quickly. Not sure if that is good or bad - time will tell I suppose. He can also type on the computer (could do that before printing or writing LOL). It is definately a different time to grow up - I remember typing class in grade 9 .

 

[sugarpie]

I learned cursive in 2nd grade.

I was shocked when my mom told me that my niece who is in 5th grade doesn't know how to write cursive. She attends the same school I did, but apparently it's now 'optional' and my niece didn't like it. Since when did you get options on what you want to learn? They don't have to memorize the multiplication tables anymore, either. I just don't get what they are learning.

My daughter starts kindergarden next year, and I really hope the school system we're in requires cursive writing to be learned.

 

[LisaB]

My daughter who is in second grade is learning it now

 

[FlyingBelle]

The school my kids go to learn cursive. They start with the print in K and they teach I think it is called denalian (sp?) style, it is similiar to cursive, the lower case k actually looks like a cursive k. The d & a and other letter that are similiar have the little hooks on the end.

Supposedly when they transition to cursive it is much easier coming from the denalian style print. Dd picked it up easily (she's in 5th grade now) and ds is in K and he is starting the little hooks on letters and stuff.

When I taught kindergarten back in 1995 I had to teach denalian (I'm not sure how to spell it anymore either). It was a cross between cursive and print. I have such perfect print - that it was difficult for me to make the transition myself! (I happen to like both print & cursive, not a fan of the combo)

 

[FlyingBelle]

Just googled it...

Here's a sample of what denelian looks like...

http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/denelian-1/make-d.htm

 

[Ariel Mae]

I was watching something on the news the other day, and theyw ere talking about teaching children to print in the third grade. Third graders, just learning to write their names.

I'm sorry, but what? We learned how to do that in Kindergarten.

As for cursive, I believe that was first or second grade, but emphasis on print has become more applicable than cursive.

Come high school, they didn't care how we wrote, as long as it was legible. We could half print/half cursive, and we'd still do well.

 

[ZachnElli]

My oldest is in 6th grade and does not know how to write in cursive. They did a very brief lesson of it in 3rd grade and if you didn't get it, no big deal. It was not required to write in it. We also moved to another state and they didn't require it either. We've moved since then (yeah, lots of moving). So I don't know if my DD in 2nd grade now will be taught cursive or not. I don't think it's necessary anymore. JMO.