Anonymous wrote:My kid with beautiful cursive was told she had to print in 3rd grade until cursive was formally introduced, at around the tail end. It was exceedingly frustrating.

Oh my how traumatic!!! Is she doing okay?

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Anonymous wrote:Who knew that all these elementary school students needed to be trained for future careers as calligraphers and scribes?

I personally will not rest until pens and pencils—newfangled tech garbage— are rightfully replaced by quills and ink pots.

Who needs fine motor skills anyways.

Who knew that cursive was the only way to hone fine motor skills. Thousands of years of children who never possessed fine motor skills, all because cursive hadn’t been invented yet!

Thank you. Some of these posters are ridiculous.

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Anonymous wrote:Plenty of jobs, particularly in this area, will not allow note taking on a computer for security reasons. Handwriting is a life skill— assuming your kids send thank you notes after birthdays, etc.

But…I see why classroom time can’t necessarily be used teaching it anymore, and so we teach cursive at home. My DC is young enough to think it’s a fun throwback to mommy’s old fashioned school.

Why? What are they teaching now that wasn't taught "back in the day" that is more important?

Well, I didn’t get classes in coding, for example, and the nuns were not doing part time language immersion. I do have beautiful handwriting and my daughter will as well, but she’ll learn it at home. I don’t find spending 30 minutes with her a few days a week practicing to be a chore.

Also, many of my peers don’t have great cursive. Expecting them (assuming teachers are closer in age to me) to be able to teach it seems unreasonable.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of jobs, particularly in this area, will not allow note taking on a computer for security reasons. Handwriting is a life skill— assuming your kids send thank you notes after birthdays, etc.

But…I see why classroom time can’t necessarily be used teaching it anymore, and so we teach cursive at home. My DC is young enough to think it’s a fun throwback to mommy’s old fashioned school.

Why? What are they teaching now that wasn't taught "back in the day" that is more important?

If I teach cursive, what should I remove from the curriculum?

The 2 weeks of I'm a math person in 3rd grade for starters.

DP, third grade teacher.

I honestly don’t know what you are talking about. We have had no down time. The first unit lasts only the first two weeks and covers pictographs, bar graphs, reading analog clocks and thermometers.

When my kid was in 3rd grade 2 years ago they were home during the pandemic and they were sitting in my office. The first two weeks of math instruction was largely presentations about how everyone was a math person rather than review of content or new instructional content. I was quite upset at the time.

Sounds like you should homeschool, so you can spend 10 days of intensive cursive Boot Camp. I’m sure it’ll pay dividends down the road

As I wrote up thread, FCPS did teach my kid cursive in 3rd grade and provided a workbook.

I said to drop the everybody is a math person part of the curriculum in response to a teacher who asked would could be dropped to provide time for cursive.

I feel sorry for the math teacher that was forced to do those presentations. When you let educational leadership interfere with instruction and override a teacher’s authority and autonomy, all this kumbaya indoctrination becomes a “requirement.”