It has been a very long time since I've been to school, but not long enough that I don't remember some of my school days. I know the world has moved along in a big way since those days, but I would have thought that some things wouldn't have a need to change--or at least, not a lot.
My children are 11 and 13 now. But neither have been taught 'cursive writing'. You know, the way adults write when there's not a keyboard handy, the way you sign your name or jot down a quick list for the store--that's cursive, when the letters are connected and you don't raise your pen or pencil from the paper until the whole word is finished.
The first time I signed the younger one's home sampler book, he about had a stroke wondering what I had done to his book because he couldn't read it! I had to translate it for him.
Now, I distinctly remember learning in Miss Gillerlaine's class in second grade [that's age 7 or thereabouts]. It seemed logical and made me feel important to write like grownups. But, they don't do that here.
Apparently, students their age can 'connect' letters if they feel like it when they do their schoolwork, but that's as far as it goes up til 8th grade. I suppose one could argue that it's not important in this age, but the fact remains that those of us that actually write in cursive are still around and they will be so SOL when they have to decypher it one day.
4 comments:
I must've gone to school in the years after cursive was necessary because we were taught normal handwriting in the 1970's and 1980's.
My (American) girl's teachers thought it quaint and somewhat shocking that she wrote her essays and notes in cursive. As if it were some sort of esoteric skill from an antique age. I wondered if they could even read it. When did they drop cursive as unneeded in New Zealand?
I lived in NZ for a while and noticed the schools were lacking. I'm back in Washington State now where they stopped teaching cursive a few years ago. It seems to be happening stateside too. :(
Here, too, they have stopped teaching cursive. Lorelei knows some, but I still wish I lived where i could have her every day...I still think they need to know how to write in cursive.
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