Sarah Morgan

Healthcare Geek.
Professional Communicator.

creativity

Cursive No More?

I was amazed by commenters on this post about taking handwriting out of school curriculums who said that they could neither write nor read cursive. Really? We’re not talking about Old English – just plain old Palmer script. Are there really very many people who can’t read handwriting?

And are there really very many people who think it makes sense not to teach it anymore? Apparently so, and that really bothers me. The argument that nobody needs to write now that we type so much is ridiculous.

Let’s stop teaching math because there are calculators. Let’s stop teaching history and science because there are whole Channels for it. Let’s close down libraries because there’s Wikipedia. And my favorite: let’s stop teaching grammar and spelling because there’s spell-check. Hey, let’s raise a nation of ignoramuses because we have technology as smart as we ought to be. And then let’s get mad when other countries raise their standards of living above ours and buy majority stakes in our companies. Awesome.

I’m not saying cursive writing is the American Dream. I’m just saying that I think it’s a necessary form of communication to learn. How on earth will these kids sign a contract, let alone a Hallmark card?

Furthermore, writing things down helps some brains learn better than hearing or seeing or typing. I’ve got one of those brains, and I’d learn and remember things much more slowly if I couldn’t write them down.

I type 80-90 words a minute, and I love my MacBook Pro something fierce – but I love writing by hand. I love the fountain pen that I always have with me, I love pretty papers – and honestly, it would be a huge loss if you told me I could never write anything in cursive ever again. It’s a way to make communication that much more personal – like making it a little bit of art, as well as communication. That they’re taking that away from kids seems awful to me.

Comments

Sarah Morgan

Good for you! It truly makes me sad that it’s dying out.

I was homeschooled myself till fourth grade and didn’t love my experience, but am so heartened by all the homeschool mom bloggers I see – it seems much different than it was in my experience. Good for you there as well!

Hi Sarah,

This has been on mind quite a bit. My daughter’s friends were discussing how great it is that they don’t have to learn cursive in school. My daughter, who I homeschool along with my little boy, said, “Um, my teacher makes me practice it. She’s teaching my brother.” Her friends, bless them, shook their heads in sympathy. 🙂

Trenda

Leave A Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.