Cursive writing in school

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Replies

  • DMZ_1
    DMZ_1 Posts: 2,889 Member
    I am not a parent, but I believe that cursive should still be taught. It is important to write.

    The public schools must be horrible now at the K-8 level. I remember my mom complaining a lot in the 90s about some of things I was taught in certain schools. And I think public education is worse now than it was in the 90s, and it was not great back then.
  • dalgirly
    dalgirly Posts: 280 Member
    I took cursive writing in school and I still can barely sign my name as I just NEVER write a thing.

    But my nephew still learns cursive in school.

    I am not saying they shouldn't teach cursive. But I think they need to teach it in conjunction to other forms of communication/writing. Maybe not put as much effort into cursive as they used to and do some cursive and some typing.

    As honestly, I do not know when the last time I wrote anything in cursive was. Other than my signature, which looks like I'm five. But really, there is not as much need for cursive and I would say typing is much more used and needed.

    That said, people really need to learn grammar!
  • Anomalia
    Anomalia Posts: 506 Member
    I have not used cursive even one time since I have been in elementary school. I don't see a point to it unless someone really enjoys writing that way.
  • ShreddedTweet
    ShreddedTweet Posts: 1,326 Member
    They learn it here but I'm not in the US....Too much dumbing down of everything, it hasn't quite reached us yet but I'm sure it will eventually. Not in my house though, they'll learn it whether they're taught it in school or not!!!!
  • sionnain
    sionnain Posts: 96
    I'm very glad I was taught cursive, and it's all I use when I write. It's much quicker to write using cursive, IMO.

    If I ever have children and they don't end up learning cursive in school, I'll teach them myself.
  • stargazer008
    stargazer008 Posts: 531
    That's awful. I hope it's just an American thing.

    They do it in Canada too. I remember doing cursive writing just a few years ago.
  • 1Fizzle
    1Fizzle Posts: 241 Member
    Unfortunately penmanship is a lost art. Nowadays these kids see things written in cursive and don't even recognize the letters. To me that is crazy..Times have changed! :noway:
  • mrssmith636
    mrssmith636 Posts: 80 Member
    My son is going to learn this year in the 2nd grade.
  • AnninStPaul
    AnninStPaul Posts: 1,372 Member
    Oh my gosh - I hope that this is true in our school district. My son has a fine motor issue and has reallly struggled learning to print. I was making myself sick the other day thinking that he is going to have to learn cursive next year.

    Actually this is the problem...not learning the fine motor skill creates issues for kids later on, and has a role in synapse development. Sorry....
  • paynch
    paynch Posts: 1 Member
    My children were not taught this in our last district either. I was also upset about that. Being a busy working mom does not leave much time for us to have to take on such a task when already concentrating on other homework. I did work with them as much as I could on this. We have moved and they are in a new district this year that does teach it. They started teaching it in 3rd grade. My son is in 5th grade now. The teacher said that because we did work on it a little bit ourselves, it has helped him in getting caught up to where the other students in his class are.
  • deninevi
    deninevi Posts: 934 Member
    My older son is in 4th grade. He started learning cursive in 3rd. grade.
  • Sasssy69
    Sasssy69 Posts: 547 Member
    My daughter attends the Mead school district, they are still teaching cursive,,,, District 81 does not so I hear. Thats a shame,

    Actually, this is incorrect. My daughter is in the 4th grade in District 81, and she is being taught cursive. This is s a school to school thing, not a district thing. I'm glad she's being taught it, but it's not as if I can't teach her it myself. It's easy enough. I'd rather she learn to type.
  • forgtmenot
    forgtmenot Posts: 860 Member
    I was taught cursive in I believe, 3rd grade and was not allowed to write in print until I was in middle school. I thought it was ridiculous and actually my handwriting is now a half cursive half print hybrid because of it.

    I think both neat, print writing and basic cursive should be taught. I do not think children should be told that they aren't allowed to write in print though like I was, because clearly that is what most people use these days.
  • catcrazy
    catcrazy Posts: 1,740 Member
    Kids start school in the September following their 4th birthday here (UK) and at the last school I worked in, they were taught cursive writing from the very start.
  • lundii
    lundii Posts: 151 Member
    I am a teacher and I teach cursive writing as well.
    The kids start in grade 2 with it.
    But I live in Germany and it is a bit different here.
    The newest thing here is, that they will stop teaching cursive writing, They say, the kids have enough other things to learn and don't need to spend any time or energy on this cursive writing.
    So... I will stop teaching it soon.
  • lwagnitz
    lwagnitz Posts: 1,321 Member
    I heard this too... what a shame. I don't get the point of it is. But whatever. I learned cursive in 2nd grade. Use it to sign my name, and when I'm too lazy to take notes in regular print...which is 99.99% of the time. Are schools just trying to screw kids as much as they can? Come on, there can't be any real logical reason for this...
  • SuperSexyDork
    SuperSexyDork Posts: 1,669 Member
    Personally, I'm torn.

    I think there are so many things that children should be learning instead that there is so little time for during the school day.

    However, I think if it isn't taught then our children will no longer be able to recognize cursive if we don't teach it to them ourselves. Really though, isn't it our responsibility to teach our children the things that we find important?
  • jerbear1962
    jerbear1962 Posts: 1,157 Member
    I spent hours on top of hours to make my cursive hand writing beautiful, my mother was the one that pushed that. I can't believe they would take it out of teaching all together. Sometimes I'm glad we didn't have kids...just sometimes.
  • CHESHIREKATUS
    CHESHIREKATUS Posts: 5 Member
    I was pondering this yesterday when someone on the radio mentioned it. It is true that some of us may not use cursive day to day, but I still take a lot of notes by hand: in the field, in meetings, as a college instructor, and sometimes when I feel rushed I will switch over to cursive to speed things up a bit. So, I am not so sure it is as outdated as we think. You may not always have an ipad or laptop handy for note taking. That being said, my daughter's school introduced it to her last year but it is not part of the guided curricula this year (3rd grade-Cali public school). We do still practice it at home, especially when she is practicing sentence structure or spelling. Not sure if she will ever use it, but it is a skill she can fall back on if her tablet is not handy or she is out in the field somewhere and needs to take notes. We also practice keyboard skills though so she can have the best in both worlds. I would much rather the public funding go to math and science education in the school, but I certainly don't see the harm in encouraging good handwriting at home.
  • maddymama
    maddymama Posts: 1,183 Member
    I find it a shame that children are no longer being taught to write in cursive at schools. Currently my child's school district teaches cursive writing, for which I am thankful for. If they ever stopped teaching it, I would immediately buy a cursive handwriting book for her and teach her myself at home at night. Teaching cursive writing goes beyond teaching them a new way to form letters, recognize old forms of communication, or to sign their name. Cursive writing builds neural connections across the corpus collosum (midline) of the brain in a much more efficient manner than does print writing or typing on a keyboard. Creating stronger pathways across the sides of the brain allows for more efficient and effective learning and integration of old and new concepts during the learning process.

    That said, I am also planning on teaching my children to touch type on the computer keyboard when they are older. In today's world, typing is a skill necessary for success in school and in a job. I plan on my children knowing both, but if I had to emphasize one over the other, I would clearly choose learning cursive writing as it improves the whole brain functioning.

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