Article about cursive skills disappearing

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by mamamuse, Sep 21, 2009.

  1. mamamuse

    mamamuse New Member

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    http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/cursive-may-be-a-142428.html

    Forgive me if this has already been shared.

    I suppose I can understand why some are eliminating penmanship from school's curricula, but...I just can't do that as a homeschooling mom! :lol:

    I want my kids to learn how to write properly. I thought it was interesting to read that handwriting skills generally peak at a 4th grade level. I found a notebook the other day from my oldest DS's 4th grade year, and was shocked at how much neater his handwriting was then. We still work on it several times a week, but he's gotten sloppier when I expect him to write neater. I'm constantly on his case for messy handwriting.

    So what do y'all think about the necessity of handwriting skills?
     
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  3. 2littleboys

    2littleboys Moderator

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    I've also heard about this, but we're STARTING with cursive. My son's motor skills were delayed from birth trauma, and while he's caught up to "normal" (lower end of normal), he still struggles. Cursive is so fluid and easy for him. Yeah, it looks like chicken scratch, but he "gets" it. I think it's very important to learn both print and cursive. So many things about education are "new" but people think that's the way they've always been. I mean, look at PS as we know it today... even that is a "new" concept. I prefer classical learning, personally.
     
  4. cricutmaster

    cricutmaster New Member

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    Yep, I pulled DS out in 3rd and they had not even begun to learn cursive. His school didn’t teach it until middle of 4th grade. I learned in 1st grade. Now trying to teach him at home is really hard. Plus, his printing is a mess anyway, because his school never bothered to correct his mistakes. Now he’s habitual with his sloppy handwriting.
     
  5. ForTheSon

    ForTheSon New Member

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    So that's why DS's handwriting is so messy. I was lucky, I found a few sites with printable worksheets for printing as well as cursive worksheets that I can print out. Some have the dash that they trace to start him out on. Then they have the example that he will follow on the lines provided below. Hopefully this will bring him up to speed and make it so I can read what he is writing, lol.
     
  6. wackzingo

    wackzingo New Member

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    In the Jr. High/Middle school where I work, virtually none of the kids know how to write in cursive. Last year a class of students learned it for the first time in 8th grade because the teacher thought it would help them write faster on state tests. It is not taught in our school district nor is it required. However, virtually all in-school/homework is done by hand in print but any kinds of big paper such as reports are usually typed after they have hand written their rough drafts. Also, most colleges only accept typed papers these days.

    As for penmanship in general, the vast majority of Girls write far better than the guys. It's just seems to come more natural to them. Most of the SPED kids I work with have extremely poor handwriting and spelling/grammar. From my observation, it seems like laziness is generally the cause because they make huge improvements when I have them rewrite it.
     
  7. wyomom

    wyomom Member

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    Handwriting is one of my pet peeves, along with spelling. I have had the girls do some kind of writing practice from the start.
    I think we have finally found a match that is good for everyone. I am using rod and staff this year with all three girls and so far it is working great. We are really enjoying the penmanship.
    I remember sitting in school and writing page after page of the same letter until we got it right. I loved my elementary teacher in the one room school house.
     
  8. scottiegazelle

    scottiegazelle New Member

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    I'm in a mixed boat. On the one hand, I have dreadful handwriting - it was the only class I didn't get an 'A' in in elementary school lol - but I do use it frequently in my personal life. On the other hand, I haven't even *started* my 3rd grader on typing skills, and I stress to her to write her projects in her best handwriting. On the *third* (LOL) hand, we don't do repetitive handwriting drills - but we don't do math drills either. We just try to do it a LOT and work on our "best". <shrug> So I can see the point for not and I can see the point for.
     
  9. Lindina

    Lindina Active Member

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    I'm very "old school" on this -- because I AM from the "old school"! I still think that spelling and handwriting, and the ability to compose, are very important skills. I'm determined that every child that passes through my little school (we're schooling Other People's Kids now) can think and put their thoughts on paper. They come to us out of public school not knowing how to hold a pencil properly, not knowing even which side of a sheet of looseleaf to write on first, nor how to write in a notebook! Everything they do is on handout sheets. I'm trying to find pen-and-paper snail-mail pals for all my students right now. To me, there's something neurologically-developmental about learning to write cursive.
     
  10. chicamarun

    chicamarun New Member

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    My son's handwriting is pretty good when he wants it to be. DD is working on it very hard and it's going really well. She just started cursive at the end of last year and now is full force into it.

    I think it is super important. My husband writes out notes for the kids who help us on the farm for when we aren't here - 1/2 the time they can't read them and then I have to try and decipher them over the phone!! I personally have to handwrite our sale sign every week for our meats at the market. If my writing wasn't neat - then guess what? We wouldn't sell anything because they wouldn't be able to read it!!
     
  11. Frugalcountrymom

    Frugalcountrymom New Member

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    My daughter never took too the cursive writing so I sent her to a calligraphy class..It worked great!
     
  12. alilac

    alilac New Member

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    Before you throw tomatoes, this is my opinion and only that.

    Cursive handwriting, spelling, in school, pe, and other oddities that schools are throwing by the wayside amaze me every year. So far I can't see much that the schools have done away with that have positive results in society. I now watch tv news with the headlines spelled wrong in addition to newspapers. I hear bad grammar everywhere and nobody seems to know how to write or add a comma. No one seems to care if what they wrote has been checked for errors. Not to mention people just don't care in general. Now they have "everyday math" which is a nightmare in itself; numerous steps instead of maybe 1-3 to figure out a math problem. God forbid if kids had to add something without a 0 next to it. No pe, well that's an obvious problem. Cursive is one more thing added to their extinct list for reasons unknown. Our neighbor is in 4th and still doesn't know it and hasn't started it.

    Why not? Why NOT do it? It's kind of like why learn spelling when spell check can do it for you. That's a horrible argument. Wrong words, out of context, laziness. Are they just making more room for diversity studies instead of learning basic writing and grammar? And what do you do when you can't read it because the printing or cursive is so, so lousy? If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Teachers seems to have the "it's not important" mentality. Also as the pp said, that teachers don't seem to correct mistakes. I guess it hurts their self esteem. Look. The kids seem to be ruling their parents. We're creating monsters out of these kids. They're lazy, they're fat, they eat fast food, they can't write or have decent grammar. I see it everywhere. Handwriting may not seem like a big deal, but you add this yet another piece to the entire puzzle and it produces some real issues.

    Lindina is right. There's developmental issues here as well. And the rest of her post. She's so right on. Schools are throwing the basics by the wayside and so far I haven't seen the lack of these basic skills working in any area.

    Off my rant now.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2009
  13. BrandyBJ

    BrandyBJ New Member

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    Ok, I didn't read the article, but I agree wholeheartedly with alilac. There is no good reason to not teach and learn cursive. Texting, typing, and mouse clicking have developed into the main things people do with their hands. My son is disabled and they used to literally fight ith him in his classroom over doing any penmanship. but I said, Absolutely - you will fight with him. he needs the motor development.

    No we hs - and they write about 4X as much as they did in school. In the 3-4 weeks we've been hsing I've seen massive improvements in their writing. My DS in 2nd gr4ade went from writing you needed translated, to his father reading a whole paragraph last night and telling him how great it was he could read it.

    i have never heard an arugment for not having kids learn handwriting - except..."everything gets typed thats required." To which I say, "and if electricity goes away, you will still be able to communicate." They don't think I'm funny (but I do.) To me it falls into the same category as reading the real book vs. cliffnotes.
     
  14. dawninns

    dawninns New Member

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    I've worked at improving my own handwriting because it was neat but never smooth. Over the last year (using Peterson Directed a bit) it's become very smooth, easy and, if I say so myself, downright attractive.

    So what's the use of it?

    Taking notes.

    Print is way to slow. A laptop is, especially in my small lay ministry course, way to intrusive and distracting. Cursive is fast and discreet. At any moment I can whip out a notebook and pen and take good notes.

    Another plus is that my thoughts flow easier onto paper with cursive. I gave up writing on paper some time ago in favour of the keyboard because my writing and printing was to slow or clumsy. But I can now get what's in my head onto paper since improving my handwriting.

    So my kids will learn cursive. They'll learn my style but with Peterson Directed methods.
     
  15. Lindina

    Lindina Active Member

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    Lindina is right. There's developmental issues here as well. And the rest of her post. She's so right on.

    Thank you, dear! That's something I don't get to hear all that often! :lol:

    When I was a kid, you knew you were "big" when you could ride a bike, tie your shoes, tell time, and write cursive! How do kids know when they're "big" now?? Now bikes are so tiny, and with training wheels, that three-year-olds can ride. Where are those huge trikes that were around when I was a kid, that you could still ride when you were seven or eight, because they were so huge? Kids don't have to learn to tie their shoes because of velcro. They don't have to learn to tell time because it's all digital. They don't bother with cursive at all. So how do kids know when they're "big"???
     
  16. goodnsimple

    goodnsimple New Member

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    I am split on this one. I was frustrated that the ps did not teach cursive. My own writing is a hybrid and can be neat when I want it to. I read a book on handwriting analysis and the way I made my d's indicated something pathalogical...so I changed it. (I don't remember what it was now!!) Ha.
    (also choosing to print or write cursive is something analysts look at and that will have to be revised...it isn't a choice if no one ever teaches you how to do it.)

    Anyhow. For my boys (and I have gone through this before so if it is an old story, skip it) The oldest one types almost everything (12yo) Writing is agony for him. I have him write in a journal and I am having him write reports and it is awful. For him I am much more concerned that we figure out a way to get ideas written, rather than worry about penmenship or print vs cursive.
    We have discussed the idea that he will have to be able to take notes, and then read them.
    My younger son (9) prints oddly. I remember getting into all sorts of trouble for starting in the wrong place to make letters...but he does T's and e's from the bottom...so I figured it would be easier to just go to cursive. Plus, he likes the asthetics of it. We do some vocabulary and bible verses in our cursive, which I just write out for him. I also told him he can put his own spin on stuff. We looked at a couple of different ways to make a capital D and I let him choose.

    After reading the article...I think I will teach ds the elder to sign his name.
     
  17. alilac

    alilac New Member

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    You're welcome!:D

    Kids know they're big because parents now give them all the power.

    Just to say, we bought a tricycle for dd from ACE Hardware when dd was little. It was an awesome trike!
     
  18. Smiling Dawn

    Smiling Dawn New Member

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    Legible handwriting is important.
    Age has a lot to do with handwriting.
    I think writing so others can read what you wrote is very important.
    It show kindness.
    If I write something sloppily then I am not caring about what others think.
    I am not caring to make their life nice. I am essentially being selfish.

    Learning how to teach good handwriting, whether it is cursive, italic, or printing is the first step for us as educators.

    Encouraging the right attitude and teaching how to write is the next one.

    Good thread!
     
  19. mamamuse

    mamamuse New Member

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    I agree with both of you! (And the others on this thread!)

    It seems to me that working on good handwriting would also sharpen the motor skills needed to draw or trace well, do other detailed work, etc. (Not that I've studied it to know for certain...)

    I have actually had friends criticize me for refusing to buy my kids velcro shoes! :lol: And my boys think I'm so mean when I make them tell me the time on one of our many non-digital clocks. They're like, "Can't I just go look at the microwave?" and I won't let them!

    What the world needs today are more mean mamas! ;)
     
  20. kbabe1968

    kbabe1968 New Member

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    HEy....let the schools do that....erase cursive....think about it - in 30 years we could use it as a secret code language b/c no one will understand it!!!!

    Just kidding. Of course you know this.

    I think it's dreadfully sad, but just goes to show you again and again how horrible our school "system" is.

    Lets throw out art, music, gym, pe, cursive. They don't seem to understand that those things are CRUCIAL in other areas of learning, at all.

    Reason 125698 to homeschool.

    :)
     
  21. goodnsimple

    goodnsimple New Member

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    2 things...just for thought.
    1. There really has to be some things "let go". after all the kids have to learn soooo much more in technology and history and current events. Science too. I think that there really is no right answer on what to leave out. (I vote for fractions, lol)
    We can only stuff so much into the day. (on other posts, I discuss my struggles with this)

    2. Speaking of secret codes...dd is a 2nd grade teacher (her school introduces cursive in the 3rd grade) she writes her notes on the kids in cursive so they cannot read them. (like in reading group.) She says her writing is getting worse, because she is intentionally sloppy so they cannot figure it out. ha.
     

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