Would You Teach Your Child To Write In Cursive?

[Sasha Royale]

Yes, but never cursive in the presence of ladies.

[amberleadavis]

Giggle

[domnortheast]

Giggle

Oi! You...at the back of the class...stop giggling!

[domnortheast]

 

I am a bit confused. A fountain pen is obviously just as much a machine as a computer. It is no more "human" than a computer. The digital text I write "comes from the human" just as much as the lines I make on a piece of paper. And digital text is just as much a shared way of transmitting the written word as any conventional script form.

 

And of course grammar, syntax, and spelling are just as much a part of composing on a word processor as by hand. Words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs into ideas is just as prevalent in digital text composition. They both require a skill and the merging of that skill with composition. And few things are as beautiful as watching a page of type come together, feeling your creative work merge into a clear document.

 

I understand that some people think differently with a pen in their hand, or write differently. I sometimes do. But I don't see how my way is someone applicable to everybody. I can't see anything inherently better about it, even by the criteria you laid out. And again, I love writing by hand. But I don't romanticize it.

A pen is a machine, or at least a device, as is a computer but a pen does not have layers of someone elses software algorithms making decisions about what is acceptable grammar, spelling or syntax. A mind is trained to do that work over years of practice. With a pen the algorithms are in my own head and when I make a mistake it is there for the world to see unless I re-write the page, similarly with a typewriter. This factor, I believe, (whether cursive or print script is used) leads eventually to better levels of literacy and articulacy.

 

I don't think I romanticise handwriting or cursive handwriting in particular....at least not any more so than I romanticise my idea of what school and education should give people, I do think I am at odds with the general run of Western society in that rather than educating a workforce I believe education should inspire people to want to learn and explore their world further.

 

I think both handwriting and keyboard skills are of equal importance as tools for communication and the dissemination of ideas but the focus swings rapidly in favour of computers and keyboards and the electronic submission of work once a child is out of Primary / Elementary school.

[Cryptos]

Well said! http://www.dharmawheel.net/images/smilies/clapping.gif

[GClef]

I just came across this bit from last November...

 

http://www.bentley.edu/prepared/millennials-say-can-we-talk-instead-text?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=content_syndication&utm_campaign=regular

[TSherbs]

 

.....I think both handwriting and keyboard skills are of equal importance as tools for communication and the dissemination of ideas but the focus swings rapidly in favour of computers and keyboards and the electronic submission of work once a child is out of Primary / Elementary school.

I'm not sure anyone would disagree. At my school, handwriting is taught much more than keyboarding at the elementary level. This is not, of course, an argument for cursive, which is/was the topic here.

 

In middle school, there continues to be an appropriate mixture of handwriting and keyboarding. Much in-class work is handwritten; papers and projects done at home are often typed. This seems exactly appropriate for the types of assignments that are given.

[TSherbs]

I just came across this bit from last November...

 

http://www.bentley.edu/prepared/millennials-say-can-we-talk-instead-text?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=content_syndication&utm_campaign=regular

This is about Millennials in the workplace and their preference for face-to-face talk with co-workers instead of texting or email/chat.

[GClef]

This is about Millennials in the workplace and their preference for face-to-face talk with co-workers instead of texting or email/chat.

 

Yeah...Millennials, who, instead of texting or email/chatting in the workplace, because of their preference for face-to-face talk with co-workers, may also develop a preference to handwrite notes and letters to those same co-workers; and realize the value of handwritten communication as well, and pass those values to their children - if, and/or when they have them - and insist that cursive should be taught in schools.

 

Sheesh! Am I the only one?

[domnortheast]

Sheesh! Am I the only one?

 

Er....no.

[amberleadavis]

Well, I'm not an M. I'm an X.

[TSherbs]

Yeah...Millennials, who, instead of texting or email/chatting in the workplace, because of their preference for face-to-face talk with co-workers, may also develop a preference to handwrite notes and letters to those same co-workers; and realize the value of handwritten communication as well, and pass those values to their children - if, and/or when they have them - and insist that cursive should be taught in schools.

 

Sheesh! Am I the only one?

Cursive IS taught in schools. Many of them. It's just that its utility is being questioned beyond the simple fact that it has been taught in the past ("If it was good enough for me and my parents, then it is good enough for my kid"). Teaching pedagogy is based on more than just this.

[GClef]

Cursive IS taught in schools. Many of them. It's just that its utility is being questioned beyond the simple fact that it has been taught in the past ("If it was good enough for me and my parents, then it is good enough for my kid"). Teaching pedagogy is based on more than just this.

I give up...you win.

This class is not worth auditing.

Edited February 10, 2015 by GClef

[TSherbs]

I give up...you win.

This class is not worth auditing.

huh?

 

I find this a very interesting topic, and it is part of my teaching profession. This is actually very germane to my work every day. I have been teaching now for 29 years.

[Tberry010]

Perhaps not exactly on point, but I want to start teaching my soon to be five year old Great grand daughter to write in some form of cursive and would would like suggestions for the 'best' programs I can find to use in the instruction phase. I learned so long ago that about all I remember is that we spent some time 'tracing' letters.

Any advice?

[ancalagon]

A mind is trained to do that work over years of practice. With a pen the algorithms are in my own head and when I make a mistake it is there for the world to see unless I re-write the page, similarly with a typewriter. This factor, I believe, (whether cursive or print script is used) leads eventually to better levels of literacy and articulacy.

I don't think articulacy is something that exists on the level of the mechanical details of a particular writing system, whether pen and ink, keyboard and computer, or cuneiform on clay tablets. If we want to teach articulacy, we need to worry about teaching students to organize their thoughts in their heads rather than their symbols on paper.

 

Literacy, though, is mainly about symbols on paper.

 

I don't think I romanticise handwriting or cursive handwriting in particular....

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with romanticizing it, as long as we don't get so emotional that we can't think clearly about it.

[fountainpenlady]

I am eagerly waiting on an inner-city middle school to get their act together in order for me to mentor/volunteer. Always on the back burner. Formally, my profession was as a Public Librarian; subsequently, a School Librarian and published writer, poet. During my time before as a School Librarian, I held Creative Writing workshops, inspired poetry and fiction writing with middle school students interested.

I believe middle school is the perfect age group for creativity to blossum. Yet, as I read many of your comments, I believe I would love to go into middle school with a couple of Lamy fountain pens, filled with cartridges and in their media center do something to inspire them to learn cursive wriiting. I strongly doubt many of the kids have been exposed to either cursive writing or fountain pens.

Edited February 11, 2015 by fountainpenlady

[TSherbs]

I am eagerly waiting on an inner-city middle school to get their act together in order for me to mentor/volunteer. Always on the back burner. Formally, my profession was as a Public Librarian; subsequently, a School Librarian and published writer, poet. During my time before as a School Librarian, I held Creative Writing workshops, inspired poetry and fiction writing with middle school students interested.

I believe middle school is the perfect age group for creativity to blossum. Yet, as I read many of your comments, I believe I would love to go into middle school with a couple of Lamy fountain pens, filled with cartridges and in their media center do something to inspire them to learn cursive wriiting. I strongly doubt many of the kids have been exposed to either cursive writing or fountain pens.

I have brought packs of Pilot Varsities (V-Pens) into my classroom. These are fairly easy to write with and just cheap enough in bulk.

[senzen]

Yes, absolutely, even if I would take into account a few things...

 

- The way things are going kids might simply learn how to type, not how to write; but writing makes thinking more deliberate.

- A way to avoid my horrible handwriting, which emerged from special circumstances, having skipped a year at school.

- A way to avoid my teen angst when my ideas were going a thousand times faster than my hand writing.

- Writing is a means, not an end in itself, so I'd rather have him or her have horrible handwriting but interesting ideas than the reverse...

 

So before I taught anyone I would have to educate myself on all this.

[domnortheast]

I don't think articulacy is something that exists on the level of the mechanical details of a particular writing system, whether pen and ink, keyboard and computer, or cuneiform on clay tablets. If we want to teach articulacy, we need to worry about teaching students to organize their thoughts in their heads rather than their symbols on paper.

 

Literacy, though, is mainly about symbols on paper.

 

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with romanticizing it, as long as we don't get so emotional that we can't think clearly about it.

 

My point about articulacy was that I think it is encouraged by handwriting.

 

On a computer it is so easy to throw ideas on a page juggle them around until they make some semblance of sense; delete this, copy and paste that, let the spell checker do it's work and feel quite self satisfied with an impressive looking chunk of text. I think there is often a great breadth of digitally produced work but often, outside of professional and academic arenas, very little depth...it is just so easy.

 

Handwriting on the other...er hand promotes articulacy by encouraging more in the way of pre-writing planning and composition; planning that goes on in the head before hand is set to page and is driven, for me at least, by the fact that it is a 'one shot affair', once it's down on the page I can't re-shuffle text without a major re-write each time so I need to know what I am going to say. Take this very text for example, if I had handwritten it I would have given this response far more thought and planning and probably got my point across with great articulacy and elegance....but, I am lazy...typing is just so easy and the spell checker reminds me where I've produced a typo. Easier but not better.

 

The strength of computer communication lies in its potential for the dissemination and linking of ideas. As an out there idea I would love to be able to hyperlink resources in handwritten work..how about taking a handwritten sheet of paper, touching an embedded link and having the resource open on your screen, tablet etc? Best of both worlds.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Stanley Howler