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

[luvsJack]

At my kids school, they no longer give spelling tests. Their philosophy is that they need to sound out the words, and write the way it sounds, and THEN eventually they will figure out how to spell it correctly. What?!

I don't get it at all. I have a junior in hs and he cannot spell very well at all. My younger ones are better, but I also (I know, bad mom) took it upon myself to spend more time with them after I figured out that the school wasn't helping, on how to spell.

Do these school officials speak, read and write in English??? I mean, come on! There are way too many words in the English language that are not spelled phonetically correct or that to work.

Many years ago when my eldest was in K they started the "Writing to Read" to program. The kids would write little stories and stuff spelling phonetically. They then found out that although the kids could read, they couldn't spell! Changed the reading program at our school and amped up the spelling.

 

[sjs314]

Maybe it was a torture invented by the nuns (yes Catholic School girl here)

I do not recall exactly how it was done other than we had to add the numbers together but I do remember having to do it on each example or it was marked wrong even if the answer to the example was correct.

Casting out of nines was not something I have ever used once out of 6th grade.

I do think years ago, whether it be writting cursive corectly, using proper grammer, knowing sentence structure(diagraming), or Math(casting out nines)and Spelling , it was overall and exercise in discipline of the student by the teacher who was in control which is something very lacking in todays society for fear of lawsuits and stressing out the pupils.

Education as a whole has become more lax and yet it seems we have more kids quiting school, using and dying from drug abusive etc.

My DS school years ago eliminated homework on weekends Of course when my DS told me this I did not believe him so I called the school. Yes it was true, to my mind that was totally insane, in my day we were loaded down with homework over the weekends.

No longer teaching cursive be it right or wrong is just one more thing in a long list that it seems is being been eliminated to make school less stressful for the youth of today, I remember agonizing over learning my cursive after school but as anyone will admit if something is worth doing it is worth doing correctly and although some of what I learned in school is not used on an everyday basis, cursive vs printing, yes I too print very often but I think these little life learning expiernences have made me a better person today.

 

[sjs314]

I never learned casting out 9s but DD did (as part of an online 7h grade math class). It confused me to no end but she thought it was easy. I thought it was new

No not new I was in 6th grade when we had to do it and that was in 1964-1965

 

[bethbuchall]

I never learned casting out 9s, but I Googled it. I couldn't diagram a sentence now to save my life, because I don't remember the rules of diagramming, but I used to absolutely love it. It was kind of like solving a puzzle.

I wish my children's schools would eliminate weekend homework or at least only assign a regular school day's worth of work! I also think that there should be a limited about of homework during school breaks. Those should be times for children to focus on family and relaxation, not huge projects (especially since that is often the only time to go away to visit out-of-town relatives).

 

[sjs314]

Do these school officials speak, read and write in English??? I mean, come on! There are way too many words in the English language that are not spelled phonetically correct or that to work.

Many years ago when my eldest was in K they started the "Writing to Read" to program. The kids would write little stories and stuff spelling phonetically. They then found out that although the kids could read, they couldn't spell! Changed the reading program at our school and amped up the spelling.

I totally agree with you there are so many words that sound the same yet have different meanings

 

[NotUrsula]

I dis not learn how to until college, but I am just sick and twisted enough to think diagramming sentences is fun

Nice work--yes. Not with shiny metal cases for the school kids though DD's has dolphins on it and DS's has guitars (the cheap ones run about 10 Euro each--so losing your pen is NOT going to fly here).

You know, I've always loved fountain pens, and preferred to write with them when I was younger, before the invention of rollerball ink. (I still have them and use them, but only at home, because the rollerball works better for situations where I need to leave an impression on a multilayer form.)

My dad the cabinetmaker ALWAYS used a fountain pen, and was a stickler about the metal used in the nib -- it had to be gold, or he wasn't happy. (He said that gold reacted better with the ink and gave you a more consistent flow rate.) The irony is that I used to get in trouble over the fountain pen all the time in school; my teachers did not want me to use it because they were afraid of what might happen if a cartridge leaked. None ever did that I can recall, but they still gave me hell over the possibility.

When Dad died my Mother divided up his more special possessions among us kids. My brother got his watch, one sister got his pen-knife, another sister got his camera, and I got his favorite gold pen. I still have it and use it quite frequently, 36 years later.