Why are children still taught cursive?

I agree. Shorthand isn’t taught in schools, I was interested, so I taught myself.

I was not, however, taught typing, which is much more essential, and much more useful, and much harder to learn properly now that I’ve been doing it incorrectly for all this time.

So you can try to remember it when you have to write the paragraph saying you agree not to cheat, blah, blah, blah on the SATs.

cursive is lame. I remember being told that in high school teachers will expect me to write in it. All my teachers didn’t want you to write in it. I personally would have liked to learn more about dinosaurs : )

From a Swedish teacher’s POW, we still think it’s important to learn how to write in cursive handwriting, binding letters together. When you master it it is also the fastest way of handwriting when you have the “flow”. But to be honest, I do question it aswell. I do believe handwriting is important, especially when our kids use computers all the time and for some reason find it very boring and “hard” to write by hand.

Personally, I think it’s still being taught to annoy the crap out of parents. Seriously, this is the one thing I truly hate working on with my children. My 14yr never writes in cursive, her teachers ask them not to write in cursive, because so many write in so many different styles, some of it is too sloppy to read and understand. In fact, all papers must be turned in typed on the computer.

I don’t know why it’s still there, but it is….grumble, grumble, grumble!

Well, for one, reading things in cursive, like old documents would present a challenge to students. Would you like them to be told by their Civics / History teacher to read the Declaration of Independence from a print out?

I never use cursive, but I’m damn glad I know it. My ‘print’ is half cursive anyway.

Music is seen as a non-essential luxury in schools, too. What use could music possibly be to students, who don’t have to play in orchestras anymore – they can just turn on the radio! But, see, music does teach things beyond the obvious, such as math and makes connections in the brain that might not otherwise be there.

Now, I’ve heard arguments against teaching handwriting too. It’s an outdated skill, people say, and we never use it anyway – we just type on the Internet, and as long as you can use a keyboard, that’s all you need, right? I disagree. I can’t help but think that it’s beneficial to hand-eye coordination – or are we just going to trust video games to teach that anymore? It also fosters a whole different way of thinking. Learning handwriting also develops fine motor skills and sequential thinking.

We’ve done away with so much, especially with the way “no child left behind” is (not) working. I suppose that if all we want to do is raise and turn out generations of consumers who are best suited to working low wage, underclass jobs, sure, who needs things like handwriting, music, and art – but is that what we really want to do? Is that all we’re aspiring to be?

This ranks right up there with the people who think that we shouldn’t bother teaching spelling or grammar anymore, either, since there are computer programs that can do that for them nowadays, and besides, as long as they are getting their ideas out, correcting spelling just makes them feel bad. To extend this idea, why teach math, since there are calculators? Why teach them how to use a library, since there’s Google? It’s important to learn all these things – and handwriting – because it’s basic education.

Why not? How are you going to know how to sign important documents? It’s not completely outdated, many people use it on a daily basis.

I wasn’t taught cursing in school, but at home from my parents. But I refined it on the playground at school and it comes in quite handy.

So they can scribble their signatures like we do.

Oh, you said cursive!
My fucking bad.

Chuckie, I wish my lurve still counted for you. I really do.

@ Asmonet: You can borrow some of my lurve for Chuckie :-)

@curious: Danke!

actually they’ve taken out cursive in a few schools already near me. They are also trying to take out grammar all together. This I disagree with.

Taking out grammar?! That’s crazy! Grammar is so, so, so important. I personally believe that poor grammar makes any writing absolutely incomprehensible.

I’ve taught in the public schools off and on for the past 25 years. Because of standardized testing, schools have really been forced to take out things like handwriting/penmanship. When I was in school, it was a subject like math or reading. With all the information that has to be covered today, I guess handwriting was the logical choice to cut.

The more important question is, “Why are we still teaching children Roman Numerals?”. Eventually even Big Ben will have a digital display. crosses his fingers and wishes as hard as he can soonsoonsoon…

The more you learn, the more you earn. Not enough time to teach cursive with all the other skills needed such as computers is bunk. What about homework if not enough time in school? I see the problem now days in school and elsewhere is the eye on sports. Forget about learning, just teach how to be a good ‘ball jocky’. I had a history teacher that not only taught us interesting history but before the end of the day, taught us how to write a check or other things we would need in life. Thank you teacher. I see many 20 and under yr olds that can’t even sign their own name. Have to print it. Anything learned is exercise for the brain. Keep cursive active even if we have to print on a compouter and use spell check.

@mugrump – Perhaps in wealthier districts or big-name colleges that is true, but in an era of funding cuts and slashed budgets, sports programs are often some of the first things to go along with things like music and art.