Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Cursive writing, should it still be taught in school?

Cynthetiq · 01-29-2010, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Should kids be taught cursive writing in school?

Today's tech-savvy children are whizzes when it comes to typing on the computer keyboard. But their penmanship is atrocious. Some people wonder whether educators should even bother teaching cursive. Others cry out that it's still an important skill.

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Is cursive an important skill? That's a matter of debate.

A parent wrote in with a great question for SFGate readers to ponder: Should kids be taught how to write in cursive at school?

He wrote in an email:

The San Francisco Unified School District public elementary school my kids go to focuses a great deal of energy on cursive writing -- even making it mandatory at a certain grade level.

While the students do get to do a limited amount of computer time, there is no emphasis on getting them to teach students how to type. This seems to me to be a somewhat archaic stance to take in this day of computer ubiquity.

Indeed, I've heard from co-workers that some schools in the suburbs are completely downplaying cursive and instead focusing on getting kids to type on a computer.

One school in the East Bay, for example, gives homework writing assignments with a "first choice" preference that it be done on a computer.

I'm just wondering what parents with kids in upper elementary grades are finding their schools, be they public or private, are doing on this question.

I vividly remember learning to write with fancy loops in the third grade. At about the same time, I started dotting my "i's" with cutesy little circles and hearts. To me the writing was beautiful and creating it was like an art. But do I use the proper cursive form today? Hardly. My writing looks like chicken scratch.

My 6-year-old daughter recently came home and showed me that she learned to write her name in cursive from an older kid at school. She was proud, and now she always signs her name with pretty penmanship. But does she need to learn to write anything in cursive beyond her own name?

Children typically learn print in kindergarten and instruction in cursive begins in third grade. But these days, they don't master either form. Daily handwriting lessons have decreased from an average of 30 minutes to 15 minutes over the years, according to Time. Many experts are appalled by the handwriting of some children--the sloppiness became apparent when the SAT test introduced a handwritten section.

That said, last year a USA Today article reported: "Cursive is still widely taught in U.S. public and private elementary schools, according to a 2007 nationwide study on handwriting instruction by Vanderbilt University. It surveyed a random sampling of about 200 teachers in grades one through three in all 50 states.

"Ninety percent of the teachers who responded said their schools required instruction in handwriting, the study found. Of those who taught it, half of second grade teachers and 90% of third grade teachers offered instruction in cursive.

"Furthermore, the teachers said they spent about 60 minutes a week, or 15 minutes a day, on teaching cursive -- the amount recommended by handwriting experts."

Steve Graham, the University of Vanderbilt professor who compiled all of these numbers, would argue that it's still worth teaching our children to write with curlicues. Graham has looked closely at cursive in the classroom, and, according to Newsweek, finds that a majority of primary-school teachers believe that students with fluent handwriting produced written assignments that were superior in quantity and quality and resulted in higher grades--aside from being easier to read.

Graham's work has also shown that from kindergarten through fourth grade, kids think and write at the same time, Newsweek reports. "Only later is mental composition divorced from the physical process of handwriting. If [kids] have to struggle to remember how to make their letters, their ability to express themselves will suffer. The motions have to be automatic, both for expressive writing and for another skill that students will need later in life, note-taking."

Others are more skeptical. "Personally I thought it was ridiculous that I had to learn cursive in elementary school decades ago," says Mike Sela, whose daughter is in the fifth grade at an S.F. public school, "so the idea that my daughter has to spend precious school time in the 21st century on an archaic and redundant handwriting style, seems laughable at best. In an era where schools are desperate to save money and time in any way possible, and are on the hook to measurably increase achievement, how about killing this useless piece of curriculum? In general we're typing more and more, so what's the point of teaching our kids a second and less-legible form of handwriting? Save it for the calligraphy elective."

Do you think children should learn to write in cursive or should teachers use the time spent on other subjects?

Read more: The Mommy Files : Should kids be taught cursive writing in school?

If you don't learn how to write cursive how can you be taught to read cursive? Also, couldn't this be an indicator for people to learn fine motor skills say for skills that require such a thing for example hand dexterity for the the medical profession?

Personally, I think that it's an important skill. People still write by hand, some people actually write cursive still maybe not many in the circles you frequent, but it is still widely used. It is also widely learned and used in many other countries.