Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher 37 Replies latest social current

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  GrreatTeacher

  LUHE, I love that! What does it mean?

  Road to Nowhere, that is partially how I get buy in for learning cursive: I tell them they can write faster and 'get it done with quicker .'

  Of course, I am still struggling with legible block printing with some of them. It's not fashionable in education right now to spend time on learning any process of handwriting. Nor spelling. Because we now have spell-check. Not even kidding. The solution is keyboarding and spell-check with the powers that be currently.

  By the way, parents nearly rioted when we told them at the beginning of the school year that there would be no spelling homework this year and it would be folded into the daily curriculum (cough, cough). I don't blame them. I wish they would call the Board of Ed. Maybe they'll listen to them because they certainly don't listen to us.
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  GrreatTeacher

  Sparky, I think it is very reasonable to assume that cursive handwriting vs block printing use different parts of the brain/neuronal pathways.

  I had always used it, then dropped it when I was teaching younger students. It was a bit challenging to pick up again and it took a few months for it to be automatic again.

  Sadly, cursive was taught to my son as an afterthought, mostly for children who finished their work early and he never did. He doesn't even have a cursive signature!

  But, of course, they all have laptops that the school board lends them. So, all their work is digital now except for the rogue geography teacher who makes them label maps.

  They no longer have to take notes: they're just given copies of the PowerPoint.
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  La Capra

  When I was in grades 4-5, our favorite part of the day was our last half hour or so, when the teacher would write a sentence on the board from Dr. Seuss and we would practice our cursive. We always left relaxed, de-stressed, smiling and re-set for the evening (probably at a meeting for me...).

  I am 50 years old. I have been teaching high school for more than 25 years. My students today marvel that penmanship was part of our daily lessons and wish they could have had that instead of the academic pressures they faced even in 4th grade. If they ever forget to put their names on their paper, I write it for them with a classic flourish. They can't believe I could write like that when I was ten-that we all could. Some of them leave their names off their papers on purpose, just so I will write it for them (these are 17 and 18 year olds).

  They don't even need to type into a keyboard any more, they all just take pictures of everything they need to remember, or speak into their phones.

  I wonder what they used to say when people developed written language: the horror-no one will know how to memorize anything anymore.
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  LoveUniHateExams

  LUHE, I love that! What does it mean? - which one?

  I don't know what the camel one means. I just think it looks pretty! XD

  The other one is the Islamic declaration of faith:

  There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

  (La ilaha illa 'llah. Muhammadun rasulu 'llah.)
  
  
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  Diogenesister

  My children's primary school which is considered outstanding and has visits from Premiers, royalty and EU big-wigs most definately teaches cursive and has spent a lot more time on it in the last few years...together with spelling. I believe at one point they lost sight of its importance and the children's performance and ability to communicate their ideas well deteriorated so they have 're focused on it. (UK by the way)
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  Diogenesister

  Great teacherThey no longer have to take notes: they're just given copies of the PowerPoint.

  Link Dislike LikeSadly this has happened in my kids secondary school. Sometimes they are just flung copies of the teaching plan !!!
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  Wild_Thing

  I teach 5th grade and I have the same issue. When I first started teaching, I wrote exclusively in cursive on the board. Now I cannot write in cursive at all on the board because they can't read it! If I need to send a note to another teacher, I just write it in cursive and send it with another student. They act like its a secret language or something. Lol

  Yes, I think cursive should still be taught in schools, but I cannot carve out time to do it and its not in my curriculum to do so. They put so much on our plates to teach.

  And half my kids can't read a clock either. They all have iPads now so they keep track of time that way and don't have to ask me what time it is anymore.
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  GrreatTeacher

  LUHE, the camel. I'm thinking maybe it says something like, "Please clean up after your pet," and they post it in the park?

  Diogenesister, I think that might be where we are heading. After a few years of this, I am seeing kids who have little writing stamina. And now suddenly writing skills are very poor and we are to focus on them. The organization and elaboration, not the spelling and grammar, though. I just keep thinking how much more exposure they would have to words and writing if we could still teach spelling.
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  zeb

  Greetings all.

  The same disease hit Australia years ago. It is promoted by people in our case who have slid up the ladder in the education dept and were unable themselves to spell what was called 'the hundred demons' the words everyone gets mostly wrong.

  We see this in the kh when someone is doing a bible reading or giving a talk and mispronounce words often with bizarre results. E.g. ' and Peter was in the yard warming his hands by a brassiere.' (Hey go girl!) When the speaker meant 'brazier'. another when describing Alexander the great 'would advance his soldiers in a parallax.' That is an optical term, when he meant phalanx. I have heard young ones blur over words with mumbled pronunciation laugh (everyone laughs to) and read on.
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  LoveUniHateExams

  the camel. I'm thinking maybe it says something like, "Please clean up after your pet," and they post it in the park? - XD

  I can't find the word for please (min fadlak).

  I can't find the word for camel (jamal) either.

  Here's the website it's from ...

  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/arabic-calligraphy/83776153/