Handwriting is something most college students avoid whenever possible, and now the public school system is making it even easier.
Many states are no longer requiring schools to teach cursive writing. This decision has been met with some controversy on the Internet. The older generation seems more hostile to the idea, while the younger generation is applauding.
Keyboard skills and typing are now being emphasized in the public school system; as well it should be. Welcome to the 21st century.
Look around you during class. How many of your classmates are writing in cursive or typing on a laptop? Besides my older relatives, almost no one I know uses cursive.
I think this is one of the best ideas the school system has had in a long time. Cursive writing is no longer required due to shorthand not being used anymore and this wonderful invention called a computer. Sure, it is important to have legible handwriting, but I would not classify cursive as “legible.”
I have never been able to read cursive (part of this may be due to the fact that I was legally blind as a child). Instead I focused my efforts into my print handwriting and my typing skills.
I am proud to say that after many hours of practicing my handwriting skills as a child, I have neat handwriting today. Many of my friends don’t have legible handwriting and many can no longer write in cursive despite learning it as a child. They make up for it however, by having excellent typing skills.
Is cursive writing that important? The only argument I can formulate is the act of a signature. A signature has to be in cursive, right? Nope. As long as you print your name, or simply put an “X” down, it is legal.
Makes you wonder why you had to learn cursive in the first place.
It is my belief that cutting cursive writing from the curriculum will give teachers more time to focus on other more relevant material. The world is changing and we need to move with it.
Years from now cursive writing will be as foreign to our grandchildren as shorthand is to us. Makes you feel old already, doesn’t it? n
I happen to be a 20-year-old Ferris student who uses cursive almost exclusively. I do not use a laptop to take notes (I find it a hassle to tote the thing from class to class) and I only print if filling out paperwork or a Scantron sheet. I do, however, have typing skills on par with my peers – I have not suffered in one respect or the other. A world without cursive will make forgery easier and will sap the personality of our handwriting. I adore my penmanship – I’ve received compliments on it. If cursive will no longer be taught in schools, how will children be able to read things written by people who still use such an archaic skill? Will they have yet another class added to their already packed curriculum? Will documents like the Constitution, often shown in textbooks, need to be “translated” so that children can understand what it says? Cursive is not a foreign language – it should be taught alongside reading and writing block print. This has effects electronically, as well – will script fonts be phased out?
Handwriting matters … But does cursive matter?
Research shows: the fastest and most legible handwriters avoid cursive. They join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. (Citation on request— and there are actually handwriting programs that teach this way.)
Reading cursive still matters — this takes just 30 to 60 minutes to learn, and can be taught to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.
Remember, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don’t take my word for this: talk to any attorney.)
Yours for better letters,
Kate Gladstone — CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
Director, the World Handwriting Contest
Co-Designer, BETTER LETTERS handwriting trainer app for iPhone/iPad
Having had several instructors who would not accept papers in cursive I cannot help but feel that it’s becoming a dated requirement. My school made us write in cursive our entire third grade year, only to have us go back to regular print our 4th grade year.
I personally would not label learning cursive as a worthless pursuit, but I do feel that there are more important things that can be taught to students during that time.
BTW if penmanship is a concern, take an manual drafting class. They will make you write in all caps Gothic. Your penmanship will increase by leaps and bounds.
Then, it should not be requred from the school sytem to teach math, w got calculators and thatfalls into the same argument tat you are possing here, ter are enough gadgets tohelp you add and substract.
Preach it! Logical, if slightly ironic given the spelling mistakes.