Posted on 07/07/2011 7:52:05 AM PDT by newzjunkey
...[Indiana] State officials sent school leaders a memo April 25 telling them that instead of cursive writing, students will be expected to become proficient in keyboard use.
The Times of Munster reports the memo says schools may continue to teach cursive as a local standard, or they may decide to stop teaching cursive altogether...
...'The skill of handwriting is a dying art,' [East Allen County Schools Superintendent Karyle Green] said. 'Everything isn’t handwritten anymore.'...
Winning: The key board wins as students will no longer be assessed on the handwriting style in third and fourth grade
From now on, second-graders will be taught cursive. But students will no longer be assessed on the handwriting style in third and fourth grade.
'We think it’s still important for kids to be able to read cursive,' Hissong said.
'But after that, it begins to become obsolete.'
Andree Anderson of the Indiana University Northwest Urban Teacher Education Program says teachers haven't had the time to teach cursive writing for some time because it's not a top priority...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
ted kaczynskii, the Unabomber, was identified by his writing style by his bro.............
Then let the individual who wishes to use it learn it on their own time. It is not a necessary skill in the adult world.
Are schools teaching kids to tell time anymore, or have they cast that aside?
Then you should learn shorthand if you take a lot of notes. It’s faster. Cursive is bloody slow and quite frankly often the person who wrote it can’t read it.
Typing is a far more useful and universal skill.
LOL.
Pick one thing you disagree with and make that the hallmark of your argument.
Those same teacher’s unions agree to teach math, science, social studies and the like. Is that also suspicious to you?
And when an EMP finally hits, and all those fancy keyboards and computers that we have become paperweights, not learning cursive gives people on less way to communicate thoughts on paper. Sure, they can print, but I think the flowing style of cursive should allow people to communicate more quickly on paper.
Hell, I’d even re-introduce shorthand for secretaries. It would be convenient if their computers are down.
Yeah, when was the last time you saw business professionals taking notes in cursive?
About never, even when they’re older people who prefer that method. They either use recorders, keyboards or electronic tablets - or if relegated to pen and paper, print or use shorthand.
Cursive is basically dead in real-world use with the exception of the signature - and even that may be replaced with an electronic equivalent soon, or microprinting signets.
They want to get rid of writing classes.
Do they want to get rid of Math, Science and Social Studies too? (They would if they could get away with it).
They have made math incomprehensible, Science is a Global Warming joke and social studies into multiculturalism/homosexual acceptance class.
Good on you. A reasonable response.
Two words: tablet computing
for a number of years now, a good number of college aged kids have been taking their laptops to class and note taking on them. As the price of the tablets come down (as we are already seeing), they will replace the laptop.
I reject your suggestion that cursive = properly prepared.
I know that 30+ years ago what distinguished me (private school educated) from my public school peers was my ability to organize my thoughts coherently, as I always outlined my projects to greater or lesser detail. It wasn’t my handwriting.
I agree. Many, many, many kids today can’t even fill out an employment application for a pizza parlor.
Studies show that cursive is, on average, not faster than printing when writing - and it’s actually slower to decipher and read than printing.
This is why important instructions on equipment are written in a block font and not a script. Also why most forms say “PLEASE PRINT” and the post office asks you to print instead of using cursive writing.
Cursive is sloooooow.
When a people can no longer read cursive, then the writings, and personal letters and diaries of our founding fathers will be no longer be read, and libs will have successfully rewritten our history to their liking.
This entire subject is as silly as the one that math was no longer needed in school after the advent of the calculator.
Reading and writing skills don’t have to include cursive. Most folks gave up cursive the minute the schools they attended stopped forcing them to use it. It’s slower for most people, and sloppier. It’s nice that you continued to use it, but it doesn’t mean everybody else, or frankly ANYBODY else, should ever use it again. The primary drawback of cursive is that it’s basically a secondary lettering system that looks nothing like the primary English lettering system. Handwritten print letters look basically the same as the letters used for mechanical/ electronic print. There’s simply no reason for people to learn 2 depictions of the same language, frankly there never was a good reason for cursive to exist, it was just there to be pretty, but really that’s just turd polish. If a person can’t put together words in a way to make them pretty making the letters pretty doesn’t improve the words.
When a people can no longer read cursive, then the writings, and personal letters and diaries of our founding fathers will be no longer be read, and libs will have successfully rewritten our history to their liking.
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Hilarious. Because, as we all know, none of those documents you mention are printed in anything but cursive.
I have the Constitution of the United States of America on my desk. Appears to be printed in something akin to Times New Roman at about 10 point type. No cursive reading necessary.
How many of us on this site (where we would expect the numbers to be considerably higher than, say, over at DU) have read the writings of our founders in their original handwritten form? What percentage would you say?
> “Hell, my penmanship ended in 1965 in radio school when I saw my printing was waaayyyy nicer than my Palmer Method.”
I’ve been printing since the sixties too. My cursive was always clear but rather infantile, and I decided that printing would create a better impression. The major drawback was that it slowed me down a bit in taking notes and on essay tests (though not much because I learned to print very fast). I suspect that on tests the teachers were so glad not to have to read somebody’s handwriting that it may have worked to my benefit.
Some individuality is lost in printing personal letters, of course, but people rarely write them anymore.
I’m in no way advocating that people start signing with Xs. I also said: OTHER THAN SIGNATURE. You can certainly be literate without having a good cursive handwriting.
All the letters, writings and diaries of our founders have already been transcribed to mechanical print available in book and electronic form. Every computer I’ve sat in front of for the last 15 years has the Constitution and Federalist Papers bookmarked, and at those sites the text is in print readable by anybody with normal non-cursive English skills.
That is just downright funny!!!!
I had taught myself how to type on a manual in about the 5th grade. My grandparents gave me an electric when I graduated from 8th grade and didn’t take typing until I was in the 11th grade. I was the only one in the class that aced every test when we were doing the electric, but barely passed the manual tests - no matter how much extra help/work Sister Bernadine gave me.
[East Allen County Schools Superintendent Karyle Green]
I don’t think I agree with you that it is a step forward. There are many activities done with the hands that actually help with brain development and intensify reading ability.
Seems like both handwriting and keyboarding should be taught.
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