Cursive Writing

darkknightfan

Fox news just had a segement about Cursive writing .. The discussion was about the consideration of REMOVING teaching cursive writing to our children ... On the premise that the way technology is now a days (texting , tablets , laptops etc) how often do our children actually sit down and write something long hand like that other than in school ... Is the time spent teaching them this skill wasted and better used elsewhere? Personally I feel that it is a skill that should remain.. There are plenty of times where a handwritten letter is FAR more appropriate than something formal and typed ...

Thoughts ??

Melanie_RS

I think as long as they can sign their name - cursive signatures are still and will always be important. The rest, nope, everything needs to be printed or typed.

they should spend more time on spelling and grammar!

JustJennie1

Honestly? I haven't written proper cursive in YEARS. My longhand is a mixture of cursive and "regular" writing. I honestly don't think I'd be able to sit down and write the alphabet in proper cursive. I rarely send hand written letters and if I do it's definitely not cursive.

I think it's a waste of time.

snoopytwins

I'm split on this issue. Because when I "hand write" a letter...my own handwriting is a mixture of cursive and print. A lot of people's handwriting becomes a mix of the two I think. That said, my children have been learning it, and, when I have to help, I have to think about how those darned cursive letters are written.

sktllmdrhmz

We can stop teaching them math while we're at it since we have calculators and all that.

snoopytwins

We can stop teaching them math while we're at it since we have calculators and all that.

I still use an abacus.

ThePhoenixRose

they've already stopped teaching it in my area.

wolverine66

this is hard for me to wrap my head around. i mean, not teaching a kid to write cursive sounds ridiculous, but if i think about it, they really don't need it all that often, and even now - when I write things out, i usually print and not cursive.

that said, does a kid need to know cursive to read cursive? I mean, there are some historical documents written in cursive that i would want my chile to be able to read and not rely on a "translation" from cursive to print.

darkknightfan

this is hard for me to wrap my head around. i mean, not teaching a kid to write cursive sounds ridiculous, but if i think about it, they really don't need it all that often, and even now - when I write things out, i usually print and not cursive.

that said, does a kid need to know cursive to read cursive? I mean, there are some historical documents written in cursive that i would want my chile to be able to read and not rely on a "translation" from cursive to print.

that was one of the arguements for keeping it "in" .. The vast majority of our nations historical documents are hand written......will something be lost if the skill isnt being taught ?

hesn92

The only thing that needs to be written in cursive is your signature...

Shannon023

I write about 95% in cursive, seems easier/faster to me.

I know my daughter loved learning how to read/write it too.

If the school didn't teach her how to do it I would have taught her myself. When she gets older she'll need to know how to sign her name on legal documents.

ninerbuff

I still think that there are "personal" touches that signify us and cursive writing is one of them. Don't spend hours and hours on it, but teaching my daughter to write a personal message in a card in cursive is still worth it.


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sbernardy

I still use Cursive when I write my husband love notes!! :blushing:

moriaht

Nooo way! They should definitely keep teaching it. Even if you don't write proper cursive, it's still useful. When writing notes in university and everyday at work, I need to write as fast as I can and printing doesn't cut it. It's good to incorporate cursive into your writing in my opinion. It makes you so much faster. I always felt bad for kids in university who couldn't keep up in writing notes and I think practicing cursive makes you faster.

darkknightfan

I still use Cursive when I write my husband love notes!! :blushing:

^^^ is one of the examples I thought of when i said that there are still plenty of occassions where a hand written letter is more appropriate than something typed..

Really we could take the same mentality with art class , music class or alot of the other extra-curriculars

caraiselite

my children learned cursive in 4th grade. i remember learning it in 2nd.
they will not be required to use it, as long as they can read it.

it's pretty pointless. i never use it.

paulvt65

When I'm drunk, I don't slur my speech... I speak cursive!

splashangel

I use cursive lettering to bring out some words in my signs. That's pretty much it though. That said, kid's start reading it and kinda working it out for themselves at a really young age. I think, if push come to shove, they could read cursive even if they never learned it.

GeneveSparkles

That word is starting to sound really weird now cursive, cursive, cursive ... see what I mean.

Personally I think it's a waste of time. People don't know how to write in calligraphy anymore yet we've seemed to evolve just fine.

lizzybethclaire

My handwriting is absolutely horrific. I failed it in 5th grade. However, I think kids need to learn cursive so that they are able to sign things. Most documents still require a signature in cursive.

FrugalMomsRock75

I think it's ridiculous. What about when they have to write essays? They'll take the time for form each letter (let's face it-cursive is faster because it runs together) and do the whole thing in print??? That's exactly what my daughter had to do for her FCAT test (the absolutely ridiculous test for FL students).

My 12 and 14 year old daughters were not taught cursive, so some places have already eliminated it. And no, they don't know how to do a signature, because THEY WERE NEVER TAUGHT CURSIVE. Signatures are in CURSIVE!

Ludicrous, I say....

EmCarroll1990

I've haven't cursive written in my professional life ever. I'm pretty sure if I did, people would start asking me to stop - and my cursive's pretty awesome.

k8lyn_235

Honestly? I haven't written proper cursive in YEARS. My longhand is a mixture of cursive and "regular" writing. I honestly don't think I'd be able to sit down and write the alphabet in proper cursive. I rarely send hand written letters and if I do it's definitely not cursive.

I think it's a waste of time.

^this

i never write in cursive. although, i do see the support of learning it just so that children will be able to *read* it.. maybe. but i really do think all the time spent learning cursive is a waste.

i remember when learning it in grade school the teacher would tell us "you have to learn this because in middle school you are only allowed to write in cursive!" - lies. in reality, every form/letter you have to fill out/write, has to be PRINTED.

sherrirb

Many wont think its needed but this is just another way for our society to dumb down our children. IMPORTANT historical documents are hand-written in cursive. If our children do not know how to read and write in cursive, then they will only know what "text books" say are on those documents.
Most text books in schools are 45% or more inaccurate to begin with... but thats discussion for another thread.

SofaKingRad

We can stop teaching them math while we're at it since we have calculators and all that.

I agree. Math is useless since we have calculators. We won't need engineers anymore after that too.

Bobby_Clerici

Fox news just had a segement about Cursive writing .. The discussion was about the consideration of REMOVING teaching cursive writing to our children ... On the premise that the way technology is now a days (texting , tablets , laptops etc) how often do our children actually sit down and write something long hand like that other than in school ... Is the time spent teaching them this skill wasted and better used elsewhere? Personally I feel that it is a skill that should remain.. There are plenty of times where a handwritten letter is FAR more appropriate than something formal and typed ...

Thoughts ??

Let's dumb down education even more - shall we?
We've already fallen way behind the rest of the civilized world when it comes to math and science, and now writing?
They should just teach kids how to get fat and play games....:frown:

SofaKingRad

Many wont think its needed but this is just another way for our society to dumb down our children.

What do you mean? All high schools should pull funding on music programs, drama, and all clubs and give it to their sports teams. Oh, they already do.

penny_eclipse

Cursive = joined up writing right...(sorry I'm a brit) why WOULDN'T they teach it!?
Loads of people in the uk still use joined up writing...I don't understand wh it "takes time" to teach...it's just handwriting, they need to learn to have legible handwriting, and then once they get older they can decide for themselves whether or not to join the letters up... Surely all schools should teach have to teach legible handwriting...unless I'm very mistaken, children still have to write at school as they don't always have a laptop infront of them...right?

amallia921

So, I changed schools as a child, and the one I was in was learning cursive and the new one already new it. So, since all the kids knew it already, no one bother to teach me. I can barely sign my name. And I might say I have not failed life because I do not know how to write in cursive.

Dankelzaga

I can understand their point if the time spent teaching cursive would truly be spent educating children on another aspect of English. I truly believe, that the English written language as most of us know it will be a completely lost art/language in the years to come. While the use of cursive may not be necessary, it did promote attention to detail, fine motor skills, coordination, all combined with the need for effective use of grammar/punctuation. Accurately produced cursive script looks very nice and it also is a reflection of the individual utilizing it.

The thing is, they say the effort will be placed elsewhere but I doubt that it will spent on other language areas and that saddens me. I am amazed when looking at billboard signs, advertisements, kids facebooks pages, emails from coworkers, etc. at the decline in spelling/grammar among the general populace.

At any rate, I suppose their argument of "we don't really use it" could hold true for many things. I still don't see a need for learning Trigonometry or complex algebra personally, but I'm sure there are people who would be shocked me saying so.

TigressStripes

I have little to no use for cursive, but I'm also left handed. It's hard enough finding a good pen that doesn't smear all over what you just wrote when you printed, but that gets compounded when you're talking cursive (lots of pen stops, places for ink droplets to form, etc).

I'd much rather see schools work on handwriting, spelling, and grammar. Teach them enough cursive to learn how to spell their names properly.