Cursive Banned?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, I wish my kid had learned how to write cursive. We barely had printing down at our local ES before 3rd grade.

Why? It's a useless antiquated skill

It's excellent for eye-hand coordination. it trains the brain to learn functional specialization. It allows for faster note-taking, which when done by hand, increases knowledge retention. It's easier for dyslexic people to read/process.

I don't think one thing in here is actually true. Cursive is a holdover from when people used fountain pens and picking the pen up and down meant ink blots.

Every single thing about how we write is a holdover from the earliest written language. Every. Single. Thing.

Which doesn't mean it still needs to be part of limited instructional time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our third grade student just started class this week. She was told today that she was not allowed to write in cursive. Has anyone else encountered this and do you know the rationale? Her cursive is much neater than her print and cursive tends to be more efficient/useful as an adult. I guess it is not a huge deal, but it seems pretty silly.

What was the context?

The purpose of writing is to convey meaning, and given that most third graders can't read cursive, using cursive on anything that would be read by other third graders defeats the point. I wouldn't ban cursive from my class, but I'd absolutely direct kids to print on things that are going to be read by other kids.

Print is far more useful for adults than cursive, given that most forms etc . . . require printing, and most things that aren't forms are more efficiently typed. So, she should be practicing her printing as much as her cursive.

The solution would be to return to teaching cursive in 2nd grade, instead of continuing to dumb down the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our third grade student just started class this week. She was told today that she was not allowed to write in cursive. Has anyone else encountered this and do you know the rationale? Her cursive is much neater than her print and cursive tends to be more efficient/useful as an adult. I guess it is not a huge deal, but it seems pretty silly.

What was the context?

The purpose of writing is to convey meaning, and given that most third graders can't read cursive, using cursive on anything that would be read by other third graders defeats the point. I wouldn't ban cursive from my class, but I'd absolutely direct kids to print on things that are going to be read by other kids.

Print is far more useful for adults than cursive, given that most forms etc . . . require printing, and most things that aren't forms are more efficiently typed. So, she should be practicing her printing as much as her cursive.

The solution would be to return to teaching cursive in 2nd grade, instead of continuing to dumb down the curriculum.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About 8 years ago I was told by a parent I was not allowed--forbidden--to write any feedback to his 8th grade student in cursive because the student couldn't read it. Any time said student received written, non-typed feedback, it could not be in cursive. And if I were to forget, he would be complaining to the principal. Every time.

That family was a peach.

They sound like jerks, but you shouldn't be providing feedback to a student in a format they can't process.

+1. This person is a troll and hasn't taught in 20 years.

+1

People who taught decades ago should give some kind of disclaimer on their posts so we know where to file them.

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader's teacher writes on the smart board in cursive, so it clearly isn't banned everywhere.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't taught writing in cursive until 3rd/4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our third grade student just started class this week. She was told today that she was not allowed to write in cursive. Has anyone else encountered this and do you know the rationale? Her cursive is much neater than her print and cursive tends to be more efficient/useful as an adult. I guess it is not a huge deal, but it seems pretty silly.

What was the context?

The purpose of writing is to convey meaning, and given that most third graders can't read cursive, using cursive on anything that would be read by other third graders defeats the point. I wouldn't ban cursive from my class, but I'd absolutely direct kids to print on things that are going to be read by other kids.

Print is far more useful for adults than cursive, given that most forms etc . . . require printing, and most things that aren't forms are more efficiently typed. So, she should be practicing her printing as much as her cursive.

The solution would be to return to teaching cursive in 2nd grade, instead of continuing to dumb down the curriculum.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our third grade student just started class this week. She was told today that she was not allowed to write in cursive. Has anyone else encountered this and do you know the rationale? Her cursive is much neater than her print and cursive tends to be more efficient/useful as an adult. I guess it is not a huge deal, but it seems pretty silly.

What was the context?

The purpose of writing is to convey meaning, and given that most third graders can't read cursive, using cursive on anything that would be read by other third graders defeats the point. I wouldn't ban cursive from my class, but I'd absolutely direct kids to print on things that are going to be read by other kids.

Print is far more useful for adults than cursive, given that most forms etc . . . require printing, and most things that aren't forms are more efficiently typed. So, she should be practicing her printing as much as her cursive.

The solution would be to return to teaching cursive in 2nd grade, instead of continuing to dumb down the curriculum.

Whether or not that's a solution that a school system should consider, the solution for a third grade teacher assigning group projects is not to go back to second grade and teach cursive. He/she needs a solution that will work in the moment with the kids who are already there. And since OP's kid isn't good at printing, and clearly needs to practice printing, then having them print seems like a win/win solution.

I think that we should teach more foreign language in schools. That doesn't mean that as a math teacher, I can accept a kid writing her contribution to a group project in French because I think someone back in 7th grade should have taught it.

[Anonymous]

My kids learned cursive at their FCPS elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Lol
What year was this? 1990s?

[Anonymous]

Oh, and be sure to name the school. No one ever does, so it will be a novelty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and be sure to name the school. No one ever does, so it will be a novelty. [/quote
Dp

Mine learned it at Navy 3rd grade in the 2020-2021 school year.evwn had a workbook, the only one we've seen in 6 years of fcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, and be sure to name the school. No one ever does, so it will be a novelty. [/quote
Dp

Mine learned it at Navy 3rd grade in the 2020-2021 school year.evwn had a workbook, the only one we've seen in 6 years of fcps.

There really is a variety of teachers across the county - some much more educated than others. Sometimes, you hit the jackpot.

[Anonymous]

Penmanship (print and cursive) is still a big deal for most other countries. In France kids still have to use fountain pens. Same in Japan. The US is unique in de-emphasizing penmanship, which goes back to the push towards standardized tests during the No Child Left Behind era. (Penmanship was of course not part of any standardized test.) But the shift was already in place during the previous Thousand Points of Lights era, as the focus shifted to computers in schools. Now schools have 1:1 iPad/laptop programs. Physical notebooks are a thing of the past for many students.

[Anonymous]

Tell your kid to keep writing in cursive, and when the teacher complains, reply,"Oh I thought you banned cursing."