Indiana Schools stop teaching cursive

[HIU8]

heard this the other night:

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/114826/indiana-public-schools-finally-ditch-cursive-penmanship/

What do you think? Do you write in cursive other than your signature? I find my writing is either all non-cursive or a mix of both. My signature has become literally a series of circles. Most of my writing is on the computer or texting (other than my grocery list I don't really write on paper anymore). I remember learning to type in high school and when I got to college they just started putting together a computer lounge where you would go to write your papers. By 2nd year of college I did need my own computer, but I still hand wrote out my papers and copied them.

DS will be taught keyboarding starting heavily in 2nd grade (they dabble in K and 1st). His school still teaches handwriting (I believe cursive also starts in 3rd grade).

[Meatball Mommie]

I disagree with eliminating it altogether, but I understand where schools are coming from. There's only so much time in the day and with the push for academics and standardized test scores, something has to give. Plus in this day and age, everything is typed, so schools tend to focus on keyboarding skills (also important, imo).

Even though I didn't write cursive myself for a long time (I'm trying to do it more now to teach my 8 year old to read/write it), I still think it's an important skill. The whole fine motor skill thing plus teaching kids to be careful of their penmanship no matter their style (print, cursive, print/write, whatever) is a good core skill. I don't agree with having children with poor penmanship doing worksheets over and over just for the sake of improving their handwriting. Some kids/adults will never have neat handwriting, but I think it should still be taught.

FWIW, in our school experience (first a Montessori school and now Catholic school) cursive is still actively taught and used from 3rd grade on. Once they reach 6th grade, I think more things are typed, but until then, everything is handwritten and in cursive.

eta: I also think it's good manners to hand write thank you notes and so learning cursive and good penmanship in general would go along with that (so I don't see an elimination of hand writing in favor typing everything, which some people would argue is happening).

[missym]

Gwen started learning cursive last year in 2nd grade. It will be interesting to see if our school district chooses to continue or drops it.

Here's a quote from the memo that was sent to administrators:
"...schools may decide to continue to teach cursive as a local standard, or they may decide to stop teaching cursive next year to focus the curriculum on more important areas."

I'm not invested in it either way. My own handwriting is a mishmash of cursive and print. My penmanship was atrocious in elementary school and I remember learning cursive as torture. But there are times where more formal writing comes in handy - for our generation at least. ;)


ETA: Found my answer. Our district will teach cursive in a "limited form" in 2nd grade, but will not assess them on it in 3rd or 4th grade.

[mommylamb]

Honestly, if I lived in Indiana, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I rarely ever use cursive other than signing my name. I think printed thank you cards are just fine.

[bubbaray]

I think keyboarding is way more important the loopy loops. My cursive is illegible -- at least as bad or worse than dr's writing. To the point where I can't read my own hearing notes a lot of the time.

[HIU8]

I don't think it's anything to really debate about, per say. I do find it interesting that it would be completely eliminated by some schools. Although I find myself not writing, cursive or otherwise, much anymore, it seems odd that it would be eliminated from the curriculum. I almost view it as a right of passage in elementary school.

On the other hand, I can completely picture my grandchildren NEVER learning how to write at all b/c everything will be done using some type of keyboard (my kids are still small, so I'm talking about this happening over the next 30 or so years).

[egoldber]

We actually talked about this awhile ago. I'll see if I can find the thread.

Older DD was taught it in third grade. But it was never really emphasized that much. In fourth grade, I don't think she wrote a single letter in cursive other than her signature.

Personally, I never wrote in cursive after about 8th grade. That same teacher I said did a wonderful job teaching me grammar? Well, he also killed my love of cursive by ridiculing me for my lefthanded slant.

ETA; here's the thread: http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=334138&highlight=cursive

[Cuckoomamma]

I agree with not losing sleep. Kids can learn it on their own if they're interested. It isn't that tough to read once you know the fundamentals. I never write in cursive because I, too, was told my handwriting wasn't beautiful. I print all my thank yous.

[lilycat88]

We're in Indiana and DDs school isn't doing away with it. I'm glad. While I see the point about keyboarding, I don't want it done away with completely. She'll learn it in the fall (2nd grade).

[Laurel]

The idea of a future population that is reliant on keyboards to communicate written word scares me for a few different reasons (some of my fears are of the tinfoil hat variety). If my local schools eliminated handwriting/cursive, I would still teach my kids at home. I agree that it takes up valuable instructional time to make sure each child gets it "right" and I would be fine with lower standards/less time spent on cursive. I still think it is a skill worth teaching/learning, though.

ETA: I know we are only discussing cursive, not printing, in this thread, but it seems like a slippery slope to me. Ok, removing tinfoil hat now.

[egoldber]

They are still teaching printing, just not cursive.

[MelissaTC]

M learned cursive last school year in third grade. His handwriting is not that great. He would get pretty subpar grades in cursive. In fourth grade, they expect them to write everything in cursive beginning second quarter. I am worried that his grades are going to suffer because of his poor handwriting. Of course, he doesn't care.

[MissyAg94]

I write in cursive almost exclusively. If we don't homeschool past Kindergarten, I will make sure my DD learns cursive at home if it's not taught in school. It's a skill I want her to learn.

[HIU8]

Ok, so let me take it one step further...

Why is it a skill you want your child to learn? In an age where already the majority of what we do is tied to computers/electronics, what do you see as the value or learning and using cursive (not being snarky--I'm genuinly interested).

What I see is a huge change in humanity--in how we communicate, in our evolution also. If, handwriting (print and cursive) is a dead art form and no one is taught or uses it, but we keyboard exclusively instead, think of how it changes the evolution of our muscles and the use of our hands. I'm sort of thinking along the lines of folks who extrapolated what humans may look like in the future if we lived in space or on planets with less gravity than earth (how our bodies would adapt to survive). It is very interesting to me.

[Gena]

I started the old thread almost 2 years ago when it was one district in the Indianapolis area that was dropping cursive. I'm saddened to see that it's spreading through that whole state. Even more disturbing is this:




The state is among 48 others transitioning to new national learning guides, the Common Core State Standard Initiatives, that no longer require children to learn cursive handwriting but expected them to achieve proficiency with a keyboard.




http://www.vancouversun.com/Indiana+drops+handwriting+from+school+curriculum/5070433/story.html


I am strongly in favor of teaching cursive writing to students. I think it's still an important skill. I think schools can improve the way they teach cursive writing, though. I know so many people who loves curvise when they first started learning, but then had that love of it drilled out of them.


For my own child, I hope that he will be able to write in cursive. DS has dypraxia (motor planning disorder) and fine motor skill delays as part of his autism. He could type before he could write, but he works on both printing and keyboarding in school. He can print and he likes to print, but it is long, slow, and painstaking process. Even then, what he writes is often barely legible. He is fascinated by cursive writing (he can read it) and loves to try to trace the loops and curves with his finger. At school he does much of his written work on the computer. His OTs have told us that he will probably need an assistaive device when he is the older grades and the writing is more intensive.


It just makes me very sad that my child who wants so much to write may not be able to, while children who are physically capable of learning cursive wrting are not getting the opportunity to learn it.

[Melaine]

Doesn't really bother me. I understand the decision to cut it out of a busy schedule. Not writing with cursive doesn't strike me as a problem, but not being able to read it might cause issues, IMO. It does seem like a dying art, I never use it at all. I do think typing is more important.

[kijip]

I think that it is important but I see why they are eliminating it.

Our reasons for teaching our homeschooled 3rd grader cursive:

-Good for manual dexterity.
-I think reading cursive is an important skill, not just for notes from Grandma but also being able to read things like the notes and records in the family bible and letters and papers from previous generations.
-I think that being able to write a note or letter in cursive is important- thank yous, condolence letters, love letters for me are NOT replaced by typed communications. I am not going to email you to tell you what a great man your favorite uncle was and I am sorry that he has died, I am going to write it out in cursive and mail it to you.
-I just consider it part of a full education and being a well educated person. We have more than enough time to teach it to him so we do. He works on it most everyday.

[traciann]

Eh. It doesn't really bother me. I think typing is a far more important that cursive at this point.

[egoldber]

I think that being able to write a note or letter in cursive is important- thank yous, condolence letters, love letters for me are NOT replaced by typed communications. I am not going to email you to tell you what a great man your favorite uncle was and I am sorry that he has died, I am going to write it out in cursive and mail it to you.

But why does it have to be in cursive vs. printed?

[MontrealMum]

Why is it a skill you want your child to learn? In an age where already the majority of what we do is tied to computers/electronics, what do you see as the value or learning and using cursive (not being snarky--I'm genuinly interested).



Because I am a historian. :) I would guess that 80% or more of historical, archival, and other older documents/records are written in cursive. Whether we move more towards an electronic and computer based culture or not (which I think is inevitable), those older documents are always going to be there, and w/o the ability to write cursive they will be extremely difficult to read.

Someone said upthread that reading cursive is easy. Yes, it likely seems so because we all know how to write it and were taught implicitly to read it at the same time. Reading and writing are closely tied and I think that reading cursive would seem much more difficult to someone who has never been taught to write it.

As someone who had to do research involving documents written in the old German script (which fell out of use in the '30s) reading a script that you have not been taught is not an easy task.

Of course, anyone who ever wants to read texts in cursive could just take paleography in college. Though that's really a course that's taught more in grad schools, and limited ones at that. And I doubt it's just historians who want to read "old" documents...think of all the people that would simply want to read their own family related documents from the 70's and 80's. Labels w/in family photo albums, diaries, letters, birth certificates (mine is written in cursive)...

I think it's a very shortsighted decision.

[MissyAg94]

-Good for manual dexterity.
-I think reading cursive is an important skill, not just for notes from Grandma but also being able to read things like the notes and records in the family bible and letters and papers from previous generations.
-I think that being able to write a note or letter in cursive is important- thank yous, condolence letters, love letters for me are NOT replaced by typed communications. I am not going to email you to tell you what a great man your favorite uncle was and I am sorry that he has died, I am going to write it out in cursive and mail it to you.
-I just consider it part of a full education and being a well educated person. We have more than enough time to teach it to him so we do. He works on it most everyday.
:yeahthat:

[bubbaray]

Anyone who thinks its easier to read cursive is welcome to try to decipher my handwriting, LOL. I personally think reading printing is easier than cursive, but I suppose its a YMMV thing.

I don't think its necessary to teach cursive the way *I* learned it -- writing out letters for pages and pages, getting scolded/mocked when it didn't look perfect, etc. I just don't think cursive matters at all now. I guess it is a nice thing to know how to read and to use for thank yous or ??, but I don't think its an important academic skill.

I'd way rather they learn proper keyboarding early on (instead of hunt and peck).

There are only so many teaching hours in a day. If something has to go, I'm a-OK if that something is cursive.

JMHO.

[o_mom]

I guess it is a nice thing to know how to read and to use for thank yous or ??, but I don't think its an important academic skill.

I'd way rather they learn proper keyboarding early on (instead of hunt and peck).

There are only so many teaching hours in a day. If something has to go, I'm a-OK if that something is cursive.

JMHO.

:yeahthat:

I use cursive writing about once a year (other than my signature). Not high up there on the return on hours invested in schoolwork for me personally. I think being able to write legibly is important. I think being able to read it is important and if they need to write in cursive in a basic sense to learn to read it, that works. However, spending hours and hours to perfect it isn't needed.

OTOH, if the handwriting instruction this year is any gauge, they don't spend much time on it anyway. DS brought home his handwriting workbook for the year and I would guess that less than 1/3 of the pages have any writing on them - it just isn't a priority. We are working on it on our own over the summer because they need to be able to write legibly at a certain speed eventually, but it doesn't need to be in cursive, IMO.

[maestramommy]

I still write cursive when I do write. Just habit. Writing in print takes longer for me, and makes it harder to write in a straight line.

[scrooks]

I think I write a hybrid of printing/ cursive. I do think it's important simply for the fact that I want my children to learn to write their signature properly. I think a printed signature looks silly. But that is just my opinion!