New Law Today

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Pupils should be taught to write legibly and at a decent speed - and the teaching should start with the parents. What Americans mean by cursive isn't necessarily the best style for this, though I think joined-up handwriting is the right start.

 

True... This is what I was referring to as a "more modern cursive script." I've seen some of the samples of these scripts, and while not as ornate as the cursive I learned, it certainly looks appealing, is very legible, and looks quite efficient to write with. It's also simple enough that you probably could skip the printing stage and just start with teaching this style of handwriting.

[mhphoto]

Excellent! I wonder if Oklahoma has or would do something similar…

[tfwall]

I appreciate the enthusiasm for the "script" but I'd much rather see a law requiring kids to learn to touch type and learn a programming language, starting in 4th grade.

 

Precisely. Arkansas is already struggling to graduate literate students who can perform at the minimum level. By adding this requirement, they are knowingly or unknowingly dropping something else.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

 

Precisely. Arkansas is already struggling to graduate literate students who can perform at the minimum level. By adding this requirement, they are knowingly or unknowingly dropping something else.

 

Yet Massachusetts also requires the teaching of cursive and has some of the best schools in the country. Whatever Arkansas's problems are in their schools, teaching cursive isn't one of them.

 

That said, I've read some arguments that the teaching of both printing and "classic" cursive be thrown out and instead a modern script that is less "loopy" than traditional cursive but still very legible and attractive be taught from the get go. I'd be in favor of this approach.

[httpmom]

 

That said, I've read some arguments that the teaching of both printing and "classic" cursive be thrown out and instead a modern script that is less "loopy" than traditional cursive but still very legible and attractive be taught from the get go. I'd be in favor of this approach.

Can anyone point my to examples of this new script? I am so curious to see what it looks like and who designed it!

[tfwall]

 

Yet Massachusetts also requires the teaching of cursive and has some of the best schools in the country. Whatever Arkansas's problems are in their schools, teaching cursive isn't one of them.

 

I think you missed the point. Arkansas is not meeting the minimum level. They need to focus their limited time and resources teaching things like literacy and basic arithmetic. Enrichment electives like cursive should come later.

[Ted F]

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: August 2, 2015

Front page item: "State booting up computer-science courses"

First paragraph: "This fall, the Natural State [Arkansas] will be the first in which every high school and charter school offers at least one computer-science course."

 

I also think that since students have been required to learn to print in the past by the 3rd grade that learning script (connecting the letters) is not a great leap. There's plenty of school years left to learn all the other stuff.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Can anyone point my to examples of this new script? I am so curious to see what it looks like and who designed it!

 

This is the one I came across that I heard good things about. It's basically a semi-cursive italic script: http://www.bfhhandwriting.com/about

 

I first discovered it when reading this article about handwriting: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/human_guinea_pig/2009/09/dead_letters.1.html

[henkc]

I started learning cursive early in primary school in the early '70s. I can't remember exactly when. It never really worked for me, although it may have taught me a bit about writing. Having recently discovered flex nibs I feel a trifle miffed that we didn't learn to do this with fountain pens. Some of the intricacies of cursive script - or the version we were supposed to learn - work so much better with a fountain pen.

 

There's a lot of discussion about handwriting in the part of South Africa where I live, following the provincial government's decision to start handing out iPads in schools. It does make a huge amount of sense, but I do wonder about what effect it will have in the longer term. I hope it does have an impact on basic literacy and numeracy.

 

As for harking back to the past. I come from the generation who learned cursive and had corporal punishment in schools, although I don't remember the latter being used to encourage the former. Mathematics and woodwork, yes, at times, but not handwriting.

[fuadhilmy]

Well done!

[httpmom]

Growing up in the 50's, I was taught in private Parochial school (by method of corporal punishment, as well) cursive with a fountain pen. You can write cursive with a ball point but it's so much easier if you learn it first with a fountain pen, or even a pencil.

Examples follow:

 

 

 

 

[Manalto]

httpmom, your penmanship is familiar to me; in fact, if I found a piece of paper lying around with your handwriting on it, I'd be pretty certain my sister wrote it. She attended Catholic school in the 1950s.

 

I've read that practicing controlled handwriting enhances brain development.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Manalto

[httpmom]

httpmom, your penmanship is familiar to me; in fact, if I found a piece of paper lying around with your handwriting on it, I'd be pretty certain my sister wrote it. She attended Catholic school in the 1950s.

 

I've read that practicing controlled handwriting enhances brain development.

This strikes me as absurdly hilarious in a way, because my penmanship (sloppy printing) had become a complete train wreck until a few months ago when I decided to improve it by practicing script everyday. I suppose those Catholic school ghosts die hard, for that your sister and I can be grateful.

 

And when I read about brain development and handwriting it makes me want to practice all the more...I need all the enhancement I can get!

[Brettman]

Is it cause they dont have 'lectricity to run any cumputers?

[Johnny Appleseed]

I'm glad for this. I want future generations to be able to read the Declaration and the Constitution

 

You know, that is actually somewhat of a historically inaccurate impression. The Declaration of Independence, in its final form, was originally a printed document, not a hand-written one.

 

Of course it was drafted by hand by Thomas Jefferson and edited during deliberations in the Continental Congress by several different delegates. The Jefferson draft, with all of the edits and revisions, is actually a fascinating historical study in its own right. But it was just that - a draft.

 

Once the final wording was voted on and ratified by the Continental Congress, on July 4, 1776, it was taken down the street to the printing office of John Dunlop who set the type overnight and pulled 200 prints of what became known as the Dunlop Broadside. It was this document that was first read to the public in front of Independence Hall on July 8th, and distributed throughout the colonies.

 

The handwritten copy we know of today was the Engrossed Copy, which was the official file copy signed by most of the Continental Congress delegates on August 2nd (several other members who were detained by health or travel constraints signed later). It was maintained in the files of the CC and moved repeatedly as the vagaries of the war forced the congress to relocate repeatedly. But it was not seen by anyone outside of the site of those official files until an engraved reproduction was printed in 1826. Ironically, the image that we know of as the declaration is actually a copperpoint engraving.

 

But in 1776 and throughout the remainder of the War for Independence, the document that represented the Declaration of Independence was not the hand-written engrossed copy rolled up in the records of the Continental Congress, but was the Dunlop Broadside (and later the 1777 Goddard Broadside, which included the full list of signers). The document that spread the word of the decision made in July of 1776 came from a press, not a pen.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Johnny Appleseed

[tfwall]

I want future generations to be able to read the Declaration and the Constitution and their great-grandparents love letters.

 

I am sure there will always be a niche of classical students who take up learning cursive the same way some students now learn Ancient Greek or Latin. An enrichment elective for those with the time, means and inclination to learn it, but something that is neither required nor desired of the generalist student. Especially, the generalist student in a struggling publicly funded school system where reading at level and mastering basic maths is nigh impossible achievement.

 

Myself, I am satisfied reading ancient historical documents like Marcus Aurelius's discourses or Julius Caesar's reports in modern translation. I don't think I am losing very much. Certainly, I think many modern translations of ancient ballads or campfire tales like Beowulf, the Bible or the Odyssey are better in some ways than the original or even past (modern era) translations. For more recent historical documents, like the Magna Carta, I am satisfied with the transmitted idea, even if I can't read the actual document.

[httpmom]

 

The document that spread the word of the decision made in July of 1776 came from a press, not a pen.

Fascinating!

[lacie]

What I learned at school as cursive is very different to what I see most people on here writing with. I believe it was called a 'modern cursive' script and it had no loops at all. Once I was about 9 years old we were allowed to write however we liked as long as it was legible.

 

Over time I developed my own mess of a cursive hand which is a mix of all kinds of things that I saw during my schooling, liked, and added to my handwriting.

[GClef]

19 Things Today's Kids Will Never Experience In School

[Paddler]

Things should be taught to children when they are capable of learning them, not at the whim of some legislator who doesn't remember what it is like to be a kid.