I was at parent teacher conferences yesterday for my 4th grade son. I pointed out that Ethan could neither read or write in cursive, and wondered when that would be taught. She informed me that if I wanted him to learn it, it would need to be taught at home. I was stunned. I remember that he was introduced to cursive in the second semester of 2nd grade, but only a few letters were taught and even those were barely taught. His teacher said that she used to write everything on the board in cursive, but kids can't read it anymore so she has to print everything in block letters.
Ethan told me that he was given a worksheet in third grade with cursive letter practice as an "optional" activity after work was finished, and one time they were offered extra credit if they could write a paragraph in cursive but that no one did it.
I have talked with my sister and other parents with kids my sons age, and all of their kids are being taught cursive. Most are only allowed to write in cursive at school. My initial thought was that my son is getting an inferior education and I was frustrated. He is a good student and could learn it if it was taught.
After the honors assembly today, I cornered the principal and shared with him my concerns. Of course he told me about all of the new demands on the teaching community and how they just don't have the 15 minutes a day that would be required to dedicate to that education. He said they they have a focus group dedicated to curriculum that has been debating this "hot topic" for about a year, and that they are continuing to investigate the possibilities of what they will do. They have debated if it was even worth teaching it if they DID have the time. He thanked me for my concern.
They have been debating this for a year and they are continuing that debate? Someone, somewhere made a decision for my son and the other 175 kids in his grade that they will not learn cursive. Period.
I decided that I needed to do some research before going to the national media about this injustice. :) My own husband says that it is no big deal and that he never writes or reads cursive in his professional or school life. I realize that most official documents can not be written in cursive, and all of his "important" papers will be typed on the computer, but isn't cursive still valuable?
Surprisingly I found that this is in fact a "hot topic" and that it is being strongly debated across the country.
Some of the strongest arguments against continuing to teach cursive are these:
1. It was developed back in the time of ink bottles and quill pens to reduce blotting caused by lifting the pen from the paper and was later seen as a way to write faster. Something that was initially developed to make writing faster and more efficient is actually more difficult for today's kids to learn especially if they are left-handed or have a learning disability.
2. Cursive can not be used on official documents. Even "good" cursive handwriting is hard to read.
3. Teachers in middle, high school and college require everything to be typed because it is easier to read and easier to catch plagiarism.
4. Cursive handwriting after school is abandoned by over 85% of all students.
According to an article I read, I guess there was a study done in the 1960's because it was noticed that children were having a difficult time grasping the concept of cursive writing.
In that study, administrators and teachers admitted the reasons cursive was still included in the curriculum: “Public expectancy and teacher preparation probably are our main reasons. We doubt that there is significant advantage in cursive writing.”
It does seem a little strange that we would still be teaching something that in the 1960's they considered unnecessary, I guess.
I found another article from The New York Times Nov 1995 that said only 10% of all sent mail was handwritten. That was 13 years ago. I wonder what that number would be now with the advances in Internet, e-mail, and text messaging.
As it said in yet another article
"That leaves personal checks, thank-you notes, journals (those that haven't gone blog, of course), and credit-card receipts as cursive handwriting's main customers."
Proponents of cursive handwriting say that:
1. It triggers the thought processes connected to storing and retrieving information in memory, and it helps early and intermediate readers link letters to sounds and spelling.
2.You need to be able to read cursive-it is still widely used in everything from advertising to invitations.
3. It is "pretty" and historical.
They both make arguments that cancel each other out. Like some say it is faster to write in cursive than print, but then they say it is faster to type on a keyboard than it is write in cursive. There was one argument that was made about SAT scores being higher in the kids who wrote in cursive on their essay but it was later strongly disputed. A lot of arguments I came across were made for handwriting in general vs. keyboarding. All are really interesting arguments.
Some actually propose that cursive handwriting be an elective class that can be taken after elementary school if they wanted to, kind of like calligraphy.
Honestly after I have done some research I am torn. In some ways I DO wonder with all of the school budget and curriculum cuts, why cursive instruction is still there when physical education and fine arts seem to be going instead. On the other side, I wonder what would happen to my children being in a world where "everyone else" can do something that they can't all because they went to a "forward thinking" school that dropped it before many others have (if there are others that will at all even..)
All in all, amazingly it seems like there are stronger arguments against teaching cursive handwriting. However for instance, My mom always writes in cursive, and my grandparents too. Will my kids never be able to read what they write? How I can just hear my grandma's voice (that passed away) when I read those words written in lovely billowy penmanship. Is it the way it is penned that I can recall her voice, or it in the words she uses to describe her thoughts?
I still feel frustrated that a change in my child's curriculum was made without FIRST debating what the effects would be long term, and also without informing us as parents of the change. I know they gave up on penmanship a long time ago (by the way- how do can you give my son a B in handwriting in 3rd grade when you never even worked on it?) and that actually should be where I put my focus with him because he struggles with fine motor skills, but that is another subject. Or maybe it isn't?
I am really VERY interested in what you think about this topic. I will obviously be teaching Ethan cursive at home if he is to learn, but do you think I should encourage them to focus more on it when Saroya goes to 2nd grade next year? Should I push the issue with the school board and principal?
Here are a few other articles I found interesting on this topic if you are interested..
I wish I had gotten better pictures of the kids actually going down the hill, but once we got up there and got going, it had gotten pretty dark. It was amazing to me how fast they caught on to all the "ski area" type things. We would say, "Let's all go in and warm up a little bit" and they would say, "Ok- just one more run" and then after like 4 or 5 runs we finally got them in. Their faces were soo pink, but they swore they were not cold!
Ethan wanted to go just him and I a couple of times. Both Saroya & Ethan were giving me tips on using the tow rope. I remember using that as a kid on ski's and it was tough then! How can you do it on a snowboard?? Ethan made sure he was behind me and when I fell off, he would let go to make sure I was ok. So sweet when your kids look out for you! Saroya kept saying, "Put the rope under your arm!" My snowboarding didn't last long because I was sick and the infection in my sinus's felt like it was freezing up. Ouch.
After about 4 hours the adults were getting pretty tired and Jaleigh was excited for HER part of the trip so we pried the kids off the hill and went to a hotel down the street to stay for the night. We got a two room jacuzzi suite for an unbelievable price (mid week and slow season in Traverse City!) picked up some food and headed to the room. After eating the kids jumped in the "hot chocolate water" (as Jaleigh called it) to warm up and play around.
