Posted on 09/19/2009 12:48:19 PM PDT by Steelfish
Cursive Writing Is Fading Skill, But So What? Fewer school emphasize ‘penmanship’ as computer use increases
A student practices both printing and cursive handwriting skills at a classroom at the Mountaineer Montessori School in Charleston, W.Va. . Bob Bird / AP [Pic in URL]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Charleston resident Kelli Davis was in for a surprise when her daughter brought home some routine paperwork at the start of school this fall. Davis signed the form and then handed it to her daughter for the eighth-grader's signature.
"I just assumed she knew how to do it, but I have a piece of paper with her signature on it and it looks like a little kid's signature," Davis said.
Her daughter was apologetic, but explained that she hadn't been required to make the graceful loops and joined letters of cursive writing in years. That prompted a call to the school and another surprise.
West Virginia's largest school system teaches cursive, but only in the 3rd grade.
"It doesn't get quite the emphasis it did years ago, primarily because of all the technology skills we now teach," said Jane Roberts, assistant superintendent for elementary education in Kanawha County schools.
Davis' experience gets repeated every time parents, who recall their own hours of laborious cursive practice, learn that what used to be called "penmanship" is being shunted aside at schools across the country in favor of 21st century skills.
Fewer people using handwriting
The decline of cursive is happening as students are doing more and more work on computers, including writing. In 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Maybe just as well, My handwriting is borderline doctor’s caliber.
I went to Catholic School for 12 years and penmanship was taught, but there are just some of us who couldn’t get the hang of it, and 1 of them was me.
My cursive handwriting used to be picture perfect, but over the years it has become less so. I figured out that it was because of all the time I spend typing on the computer.
I am a 40 year old, and on the very rare instances where I am required to write something by hand, I have to seriously concentrate, because it is such a rarely used skill set. Signing my signature is different because I do it every day... But to actually hand write for any length is tedious and difficult for me. Just because I don’t hand write anything.
I imagine that the NEA figures that it is far more important that “the churldren” know how to put a condum on a cucumber than waste that time teaching them how to write.
>>Maybe just as well, My handwriting is borderline doctor’s caliber.<<
I was told in 6th grade to never use cursive writing again.
Good advice. I print everything.
DD started catholic school in 3rd grade and it was a disaster- they just ordered that every kid would do their work in cursive - without teaching it.
It was a nightmare for her and for me to try and teach it to her and keep her ego up when she failed spelling and could spell the words but not legibly write them.
This year in 6th grade - cursive has been dropped. Her handwriting is still awful. Meanwhile am homeschooling 6th grade brother and teaching him...cursive.
So far his writing looks good.
Understand- and yet handwriting is more than a means of communication, it is an expression. It’s no small wonder that ancient handwritten texts of sacred scripture inspire awe and admiration.
Well I love Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, or even in Hebrew... I don’t see the same beauty in our utilitarian script.
My handwriting is a mix of cursive and printing. I think most adults develop a distinctive style of their own. Signatures, now that’s a different story. Most signatures from business people I encounter are nothing more than a scrawl of some sort, you couldn’t read them if your life depended on it. I imagine that’s why most forms now have a line for signature and then a line that says “print your name.”
BTW, did you know the last course about to be MD's
take? How to write unreadable prescriptions.
Then it is the Pharmacists error if the wrong medicine
is issued.
I missed 'em because I was taking a spelling class instead. Fortunately my grandmother took up the slack and taught me her beautiful copperplate ("Spencerian") hand.
It's actually fun.
Frankly, I think cursive should not only be taught, but handwriting or penmanship or whatever you want to call it.
I can't write in script on the blackboard anymore -- my students have trouble reading it. Not because it's sloppy (well, maybe a little -- I am rushing and constantly looking over my shoulder), but because they hadn't learned it.
ah, no- they didn’t teach it there, either.
They just didn’t require it be used until 3rd grade.
I wasn’t the only parent blindsided!
Wow, that’s pretty odd. Maybe they USED to teach it and then dropped it and nobody told the 3rd grade teachers? They taught it in 1 and 2 in my school, of course that was around the time of the War of the Spanish Succession . . . .
Then it is the Pharmacists error if the wrong medicine is issued.
"Every prescription says the same thing. It's a message from the doctor to the pharmacist. It says 'I got my money. Now you get yours'." - Jackie Mason
I always hated cursive - allthelettersruntogether.
Left-Handed. Was taught but mediocre at best. At least nobody tried to make me switch hands, at least not after seeing my right-hand penmanship once. I print everything so it can be deciphered later.
Glad to know it isn’t just me who has had to go through concentrating to write by hand. It is a double whammy on me, I am left handed.
My printing isn’t much better.
It doesn't get quite the emphasis it did years ago, primarily because of all the technology skills we now teach,"Hoakum; by the time those kids get 'out' technlogy will have changed so radically that it would have paid off to have taught them cursive writing instead ...
I say this as one who eschewed typing class in jr. high but picked up typing in later years as a necessity and on my own, and as one who 'picked' up technology in the same vein ...(What: are they teaching Word or Excel in these so-called technolgy classes? I would have killed for MathCad or Mathamatica back in those days ...)
My cursive is OK, as is my kids’. But a couple of years of mechanical drafting in high school and a stint in architecture at college shifted me to printing (lettering or calligraphy, really). My boys are the same. There’s a certain look about a well lettered engineering drawing. Pride in workmanship, I think.
After decades in front of a keyboard, I can barely write anymore. Not remotely legibly anyway.
I think it’s happening to us all.
When was the last time you wrote a letter?
This is a “hot button” with me. It’s not just cursive handwriting, though. It’s any kind of handwriting. I teach 7th and 8th graders, and am more distressed each year. They come to me forming their letters in the oddest directions, some not able to make their “best” even semi-legible.
When I put them on the keyboards, they hunt and peck and use their thumbs.
Now that I have the most wonderful interactive Smart Board, I just discovered I can put up a background looking like lined paper. Ha.
Friday, as they were brainstorming ideas, I first gave them a shortened fast lesson on starting cursive writing. I made them practice on their own paper for about one minute, then we went on with our lesson. As they wrote on the SB, they all tried handwriting.
It was a riot. Will I be able to continue it? Is it worth it?
Think of how handicapped these kids will be if they can’t type well or write legibly. All life can’t be “u r kwl.”
What I really need, though, is research based evidence that doing cursive handwriting actually builds brain skills. I’m convinced in my own mind that part of the increase in learning disabilities is tied to the lack of the movement kids used to get every day in using lots of cursive handwriting. If anyone knows of any studies about this, please tell me.
Yes, I started teaching in 1971—long before these students were born. We didn’t even have calculators or Xerox machines then!
There are few things I enjoy more than receiving a handwritten letter, especially if it’s apparent the sender cared about their penmanship. I enjoy sending them as well. It seems to be a lost art, and it’s a shame. In fact, I think that women who send handwritten notes and cards are sexy as all hell! (Then again, I think chicks that wear glasses are sexy, too! Maybe that’s why I have this Sarah Palin thing!)
In my elementary school days, it was taught as not only a means of communication, but also as an art form — a form of expression. I believe that a person’s handwriting reveals a lot about their personality. I don’t know about anybody else, but I think personal correspondence (especially things like love letters) should be handwritten. It says more about you and your message than a word-processed document. Just my opinion — I’m a bit old-fashioned about these things.
What’s wrong with having both skills — penmanship and computer aided writing? I think there’s room in the world for both.
I home school and my son can’t write a lick in cursive he can however type 60 wpm which would you prefer?
My hand cramped like you would not believe! Oh, the agony! I am a bit ambidextrous, and I used my opposite hand to write and rest my good hand. I could not wait or take it more slowly as I had already lost about half of my test time to the stupid computer.
I passed...
Typing without question. I am glad I took typewrting in my senior year in high school for an elective. I had a great teacher. Most days 50ish words per minute, mostly error free.
Is “mostly error free” like “a little bit pregnant”?
Great!!!
Most people’s “penmanship” is poor at best and is more often totally unreadable.
Hand-writing is a dying skill... unless TSHTF.
Handwriting looks much better using fountain pens. Ball points just aren’t able to produce it.
Me, too. Even my printing sucks. I had a boss call it "hieroglyphics"
Most people don’t do cursive well.
Print is used in most business and industrial applications because it’s easier to read and not as many ‘nuances’ or ‘personal flair.’
Print works better, it’s more efficient, Computers multiply this efficiency.
“I home school and my son can’t write a lick in cursive he can however type 60 wpm which would you prefer?”
The former, thank you. Can he create and compose on the fly at 60 WPM? Can he take notes at that rate and internalize what he’s transcribed, so that he doesn’t have to refer the to the notes? I.E. learn by doing?
I have a ledger from my Great Grandfather’s Hay & Grain Business from 1895. Every entry in beautiful, pen & ink script. Some pages contain a polite dunning note for payment that he inserted, probably when payment was made. Also in neat, flowing pen & ink. A bag of oats (50 lbs) was $1.50. Daily receipts totalled $10 to $30 dollars which was a tidy sum back then. Might still be close to that today had we not fallen for the banking cartel’s Federal Reserve System.
Personally, I think children start school at a far too early age. For instance, Finnish children don't start school until they are seven years old and are among the highest scoring students in the world. Reading ( and also handwriting) disabilities are, in my opinion, almost entirely due to demanding more of children than they are neurologically capable.
It would be an interesting experiment. Would reading disabilities decrease (and, incidentally handwriting improve) if children didn't start learning to read ( or use cursive) until they were 7, 8, 9, or even 10?
This is ridiculous..children are not going to have access to a computer 24/7, you dont’ take notes in class on a computer, you don’t do your in class work on a computer.. this is a deliberate attempt to make Americans useless by the time they are adults.. so what if you can tap on a keyboard... can you cook, clean, sew, write legibly, know how to balance a checkbook without a calculator? There is no more self reliance taught...computers are a fine tool, but they are a tool, like any other.. and when you don’t have them around you must learn to use other methods... The way this country is going down a hellhole is disgusting.. more technology does not a smarter society make, it just makes us weak and reliant on unreliable things.
100% agreement here.
I would be happy if the kids get out of school with the ability to read, write a coherent paper or email and do mathematics to solve everyday needs. The biggest college courses today are bonehead English followed by basic mathematics.
I’m not expecting too much, but my expectations are not being met.
If they teach them history, they will only lie to them.
My oldest(soon to be 40) threw his handwriting book away in the sixth grade because he only got a ‘C’ on his best effort. He figured if he was never gonna get an ‘A’, why try. Needless to say he failed handwriting and has printed ever since. Hasn’t seemed to hold him back. He’s a successful computer tech.
i agree with you completely, that’s why i am trained in this...
(there are alot of research links on their site)
i teach primary special needs children and that includes teaching them to write.
a personal handwritten note is one of the most romatic things in the world! there’s a novel about a man who writes his wife a letter every week for their entire married life. those letters are found by their children after they die. it’s a really good read! the book is “the wednesday letters” by jason f. wright.
Ping
I’ll have to read the book! After my dad passed away, mom showed me some of the letters he sent her when he was in the Korean war. His letter showed a side of him I had never seen. It’s no wonder they stayed married for 53 years!
When I was a brand spanking new second lieutenant at my first assignment in Germany, I always looked forward to letters from mom and dad. Back then making a long distance call to the States was very expensive, and word-processing was still a thing of the future.
a note, letter or card is something you can keep and treasure forever. over the last 30+ years, patton and i have written many ourselves. he was also military and stationed all over. the letters we exchanged during that time were priceless. even now, we still share little notes.
Kids who graduate with strong skills in writing ( not necessarily penmanship), including spelling and punctuation, are becoming few and far between.
You is now spelled U to the majority of under fifteens thanks to text messaging.
I agree, cursive is an utter waste of time, the internet doesn’s use it, books aren’t written in it, it’s just plain stupid ...
Back when I was being taught cursive writing (I think Hannibal crossed the Alps that year), poor penmanship would get you branded as a near illiterate.
Customers will often leave a note for me (written by my employees) for special orders, etc. The notes are barely legible. Spelling is atrocious, and they are all over the page. Can’t even write in a straight line. Pitiful...
I also require DL# or SSN on checks presented to the store. I can barely make out the numbers. Most times it’s a crap shoot trying to figure it out. Who the hell can’t even write a legible Arabic number???
at our local university, they actually cut basic math so they could have money for a women’s sports team... I’m all for college sports, but not if it gets in the way of the real purpose for college..education.
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