kids not being taught how to write in cursive at schools, anymore?

[NotUrsula]

What cursive does for you is give you a FAST way to write legibly. Printing normally is much slower than longhand. I don't ask for pretty cursive unless you just want to do that for fun; any style is find as long as it is legible.

What I find is the acid test is the essay portion of the SAT. It's timed and you don't get a keyboard -- how exactly do you plan to handle that if you cannot write quickly and legibly by hand?

My kids learn longhand in parochial school, but DS has a LD that affects his penmanship. We bought him Handwriting Without Tears as alternative practice materials, and he did much better with that style; at 13 he has less trouble writing longhand than he does with printing.

 

[NHdisneylover]

What cursive does for you is give you a FAST way to write legibly. Printing normally is much slower than longhand. I don't ask for pretty cursive unless you just want to do that for fun; any style is find as long as it is legible.

What I find is the acid test is the essay portion of the SAT. It's timed and you don't get a keyboard -- how exactly do you plan to handle that if you cannot write quickly and legibly by hand?

My kids learn longhand in parochial school, but DS has a LD that affects his penmanship. We bought him Handwriting Without Tears as alternative practice materials, and he did much better with that style; at 13 he has less trouble writing longhand than he does with printing.

I always hear that argument. Are there any studies about that? I often wonder if that is really true. Of coruse, back when we were all forced to use cursive for most school work it would be what we were used to and therefore what most peopel could write faster in (though I was ane xception then too) but all things being equal (like equal amounts of work being done in both as practice over the years, etc., is one way truly consistently faster than the other? I print much faster than I write in cursive. I always took notes (very detailed ones too) in college in print and managed just fine with many times essays tests as an English major--printing them all (being over 30 I am far too ancient to have been around for the essay portion of the SAT).

 

[livie1205]

my kids are in 7th and have not learned so I went and got them a cursive writing handbook over the summer and they went back to school knowing how to write it...if they dont want to teach it I WILL ...

 

[sjs314]

Parents scream and yell when arts programs are cut in the school due to budget cutbacks but IMHO writing cursive is also an art when mastered it can be a beautiful thing in itself.

There are times when an email is not an appropriate means of communication, ie: Thank You Notes for Weddings, Showers, and Funerals, the list can go on but you get my drift. A Handwritten Thank You shows you took the time to acknowledge and the apprieciation you place on the Giver of the gift.

I think it is also Therapeutic when a death occurs for both the persons recipient and gifter who has felt the loss of a loved one to sit down and write out notes long-hand, in their time of need.

I guess I am just old-fashioned

 

[Mellie2162]

My kids learned cursive from Pre-K, but they went to a private school up until 2 years ago. When they entered public school they were told to print only they didn't know how to because they only ever did cursive. They got on my son through the whole 4th grade because his printing was running together, but he didn't really know how to do it and they would not let him write in cursive. Anyway, he's finally starting to figure out how to space the words apart and I dont know if he remembers how to write cursive still. Hmmm, Im going to ask him to write some to see, now Im curious....

 

[mhsjax]

Parents scream and yell when arts programs are cut in the school due to budget cutbacks but IMHO writing cursive is also an art when mastered it can be a beautiful thing in itself.

There are times when an email is not an appropriate means of communication, ie: Thank You Notes for Weddings, Showers, and Funerals, the list can go on but you get my drift. A Handwritten Thank You shows you took the time to acknowledge and the apprieciation you place on the Giver of the gift.

I think it is also Therapeutic when a death occurs for both the persons recipient and gifter who has felt the loss of a loved one to sit down and write out notes long-hand, in their time of need.

I guess I am just old-fashioned

Nope, not old fashioned, you just realize that everything new is not always best. I would be mortified to ever receive a thank you note or a sympathy note via e mail. How tacky. IMHO

 

[dejr_8]

Do they still teach short-hand?

I can remember my sisters (now 55 and 53) learning short-hand in high school.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am starting to understand why so many people do not bother to send thank you notes anymore. They may as well skip the work all together and be seen as rude and tacky for that if the note they send is going to be considered takcy/rude anyway. I am happy to get a not so that i know the recipient actually received their gift and that they like it (or are good at faking it and at least polite!). It has never occurred to me to criticize HOW it gets to me (email, snail mail, delivered via friend or family member) or HOW it is written (typed, cursive, print, drawn picture, in pen or maker or pencil, etc.). I think it is really sad to discount someone's expression of gratitude as "tacky" and be "mortified" to receive it just because the form is not the form you use.

 

[bicker]

but what a real shame it will be when our kids CAN'T write a letter because THEY DON'T KNOW HOW.

Writing a letter is about sharing things about your life with some other person you care about, rather than demonstration of your ability to engage in some specific physical act (cursive writing). All that has ever been important about writing a letter is as effectively done via regular printing, or typing, or emailing, or TXTing. It's about communication, not drawing.

 

[mhsjax]

I am starting to understand why so many people do not bother to send thank you notes anymore. They may as well skip the work all together and be seen as rude and tacky for that if the note they send is going to be considered takcy/rude anyway. I am happy to get a not so that i know the recipient actually received their gift and that they like it (or are good at faking it and at least polite!). It has never occurred to me to criticize HOW it gets to me (email, snail mail, delivered via friend or family member) or HOW it is written (typed, cursive, print, drawn picture, in pen or maker or pencil, etc.). I think it is really sad to discount someone's expression of gratitude as "tacky" and be "mortified" to receive it just because the form is not the form you use.

I think it just shoes how society is losing the social skills. Sorry but that is how I feel. I don't even get upset about not getting a thank you note, no biggie, but I think that if you are goin to send one, lets say for a wedding or baby shower, then yes an e mail is tacky. And I don't know what to think about getting an e mail conveying sympathy about a death, that would be over the top.

But then again, I think it is sad that people can't even be bothered to write anymore but would just send an e mail. Sure in your situation, living in a foreign country that is different. But otherwise, not in good taste.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I think it just shoes how society is losing the social skills. Sorry but that is how I feel. I don't even get upset about not getting a thank you note, no biggie, but I think that if you are goin to send one, lets say for a wedding or baby shower, then yes an e mail is tacky. And I don't know what to think about getting an e mail conveying sympathy about a death, that would be over the top.

But then again, I think it is sad that people can't even be bothered to write anymore but would just send an e mail. Sure in your situation, living in a foreign country that is different. But otherwise, not in good taste.

Well, up until reading this thread I had also thought it was just social skills declining (and went right along with people not RSVPing, etc). I am sure that is truly the bigger part of it. However, I am frankly stunned that so many people in this day and age are so quick to turn a simple gesture of goodwill and gratitude into an excuse to criticize someone else for their presentation. It strikes me as quite mean spirited and busybody like.
FWIW: I DID send my mother an email when I was unable to reach her by phone the day I learned her boyfriend had died suddenly of an infection. I wanted her to know THEN (not when a letter might get there--even if she had been in the US where a letter might be expected to arrive within a few days) how sorry I was and that she should not hesitate to call me at any time of the day or night if she wanted to talk, etc. I am reasonably sure that she was grateful for the words of love and encouragement that I was able to get to her and she did not care HOW they got to her. SO I guess I am over the top rude and tacky to your way of thinking--but my mom sees me as loving and supportive and wanting to be there for her in any way I can when she needs me. I guess we can all just be happy I am not your daughter

 

[golfgal]

Parents scream and yell when arts programs are cut in the school due to budget cutbacks but IMHO writing cursive is also an art when mastered it can be a beautiful thing in itself.

There are times when an email is not an appropriate means of communication, ie: Thank You Notes for Weddings, Showers, and Funerals, the list can go on but you get my drift. A Handwritten Thank You shows you took the time to acknowledge and the apprieciation you place on the Giver of the gift.

I think it is also Therapeutic when a death occurs for both the persons recipient and gifter who has felt the loss of a loved one to sit down and write out notes long-hand, in their time of need.

I guess I am just old-fashioned

Again, where is the law that states this has to be done in cursive? People can still write a letter that is printed vs being written in cursive.

 

[mhsjax]

Well, up until reading this thread I had also thought it was just social skills declining (and went right along with people not RSVPing, etc). I am sure that is truly the bigger part of it. However, I am frankly stunned that so many people in this day and age are so quick to turn a simple gesture of goodwill and gratitude into an excuse to criticize someone else for their presentation. It strikes me as quite mean spirited and busybody like.
FWIW: I DID send my mother an email when I was unable to reach her by phone the day I learned her boyfriend had died suddenly of an infection. I wanted her to know THEN (not when a letter might get there--even if she had been in the US where a letter might be expected to arrive within a few days) how sorry I was and that she should not hesitate to call me at any time of the day or night if she wanted to talk, etc. I am reasonably sure that she was grateful for the words of love and encouragement that I was able to get to her and she did not care HOW they got to her. SO I guess I am over the top rude and tacky to your way of thinking--but my mom sees me as loving and supportive and wanting to be there for her in any way I can when she needs me. I guess we can all just be happy I am not your daughter

Oh come on, that is completely different. Just like I wouldn't send a neighbor a card about something that had just happened. I think you are reading too much into what I am saying.

Lets say that friend, right next door got bad news about her parents or family member. I would call or go over and say Sorry, is there anything I can do, or even test her at work, that type of thing, But if her family member passed away, like mine did, And yes I received actual cards from people, yes the ones that had previously just spoken to me about how sorry they were, and was there anything they could do. I would THEN, send a sympathy card through the mail. This is COMPLETELY different, and I think that almost anyone would realize that is what some of us are talking about.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Both my children learned cursive in 3rd grade. The 4th and 5th grade teachers usually required them to write only in cursive for one subject...maybe vocabulary or something. Since then it's never been used. I'm sure they've completely forgotten how.

BUT, if we don't teach them cursive, how will any of them be able to "sign" anything. Everything you do as an adult asks for your signature. If you can't write in cursive will your signature just be your name printed? I wonder how this will work out in the future.

 

[bicker]

I think it just shoes how society is losing the social skills.

Or rather, how society is developing new types of social skills, that many in the older generation don't recognize as such, and/or refuse to grant as such. The key is that every generation has said this about the next generation, as far back as you can go.

There's an interesting book, that touches on this, that folks might want to read:

As long as there have been youths, there have been people complaining about them. According to one observer in 1818, 'parents have no command over their children.' Nearly 200 years later, a 1999 CBS News/New York Times poll found that 91 percent of adults say teens today need more supervision, and 86 percent said that... parents watch their kids today less than when they were teens. A mid-nineteenth century issue of Presbyterian Magazine complained that kids were, 'given up to idleness, knowing no restraint... familiar with drunkenness, profaneness, and all the captivating focus of youthful dissipation.'

Throughout the twentieth century, young people were considered the harbingers of trouble. As the labor of children and adolescents was needed less for a functioning household or economy, animosity grew. A 1912 Ladies' Home Journal article complained that 'ninety-three of every one hundred children (are)... unfitted for even the simplest tasks of life.' A few years later the Roaring Twenties was a time of economic growth, leading to increased leisure time for young people. A 1921 issue of Century Magazine described kids as 'running wild' and contended that 'no age... has had on its hands such a problem of reckless and rebellious youth.' Elders were concerned that religion had lost its strong hold on regulating behavior, especially behavior pertaining to sex.

In 1929, Robert and Helen Lynd published Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture, and their respondents had much to say about perceived changes in youthful mores. Much as today, adults felt that kids were growing up too fast. 'Children of twelve or fourteen today act just like grownups,' and observer told the Lynds. A Middletown mother complained that 'girls are far more aggressive today.' Another stated that, 'girls aren't so modest nowadays; they dress differently... We can't keep our boys decent when girls dress that way.'

Writer Pearl S. Buck noted in a 1935 issue of Harper's Magazine that Depression-era youths, at the time called the Lost Generation but whom we now regard as the Greatest Generation, were 'completely selfish... so sophisticated with a sort of pseudo-sophistication which is touching in its shallowness.' The future heroes of World War II were described by author Maxine Davis in Lost Generation as a group that 'accepts its fate with sheep-like apathy,' and she suggested that 'youth today... would not fight for states' rights or any rights, because they have no interest in them.' Of course a few years later the same youths went on to liberate Western Europe from fascism - but hindsight is 20-20.'

http://books.google.com/books?id=3aVSIBHm2s8C

 

[bicker]

And I don't know what to think about getting an e mail conveying sympathy about a death

On the passing of my mother, a couple of years ago, I received myriad condolences through email and on Facebook, from childhood friends and others with whom we've not had constant contact over the years. I can assure you that those expressions of sympathy provided far more solace than the practical alternative, which prevailed for the 20-30 years prior, i.e., no contact whatsoever in such cases. Email and related technologies are a Godsend. They are weaving back together the social fabric that prevailed before people gained the ability to live out their lives more than 50 miles from the place they were born.

Indeed, if you want to hit the mark, with regard to the only significant root-cause that has adversely impacted the elements of social fabric you've touched on, then direct your ire at the motor vehicle. Our ability to live out our lives more than 50 miles from where we were born is the culprit.

 

[bellebud]

More importantly than writing it (although I think writing it is very important still), how will these kids read other people's writing in the real world? Many, many people still write in script, and these kids who don't learn script will be at a huge disadvantage in the job market. We own a small business, and I can tell you I couldn't and wouldn't hire someone who couldn't read script. Don't know if I'd even know that in the interview, but if they couldn't read it they wouldn't be able to function at their job, and I'd know soon enough.

My kids went to a private catholic school until 4th and 2nd grade... I think they taught cursive starting in 2nd there (maybe 3rd).

We homeschool now, so it's in my hands (as was their education even when they went to school - one of the big reasons I started hsing in the first place), and of course they will use cursive in their lives in the real world, so of course it's something we do.

 

[mhsjax]

On the passing of my mother, a couple of years ago, I received myriad condolences through email and on Facebook, from childhood friends and others with whom we've not had constant contact over the years. I can assure you that those expressions of sympathy provided far more solace than the practical alternative, which prevailed for the 20-30 years prior, i.e., no contact whatsoever in such cases. Email and related technologies are a Godsend. They are weaving back together the social fabric that prevailed before people gained the ability to live out their lives more than 50 miles from the place they were born.

Indeed, if you want to hit the mark, with regard to the only significant root-cause that has adversely impacted the elements of social fabric you've touched on, then direct your ire at the motor vehicle. Our ability to live out our lives more than 50 miles from where we were born is the culprit.

Ok, yep you are right, the car is the root of all evil. Funny, but the car didn't take away written communication for a very long time.

to each their own, but I think a personal card is sometimes far superior than a text or e mail. My opinion and I will stick to it.

 

[Jennasis]

Cursive will soon be dead. Good riddance. Like other posters have said, the abacus and slide rule are obsolete too. The world evolves. Communication evolves. There will always be those resistant to the change. I prefer to roll with it.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

Writing a letter is about sharing things about your life with some other person you care about, rather than demonstration of your ability to engage in some specific physical act (cursive writing). All that has ever been important about writing a letter is as effectively done via regular printing, or typing, or emailing, or TXTing. It's about communication, not drawing.

That is only your OPINION, and not a fact. Or did I miss the official rules?