I was just writing about various state initiatives to stop homework being assigned to students in public schools (it is socioeconomically unfair…), and now I have yet another topic to consider- the end of cursive writing. Both of these ideas have some superficial currency, in that there are only so many ideas, skills, and information which modern students have the time to absorb. At least this is the subtext given to justify both of these ideas.
There are some real dilemmas confronting us in the education world. We are reaping the results of several decades of social flux, in that graduation rates, failing schools, and many other problems (mostly outside of the ability of the education system to address in any practical manner) have rendered school into places where some learn, but many simply wait to leave.
This is bad enough, but the growingly interconnected business world, as well as a soon to be emerging global society will relegate many of these (less than perfectly served) students into a life of few opportunities.
Many have decided to jump upon whichever technological bandwagon is the current ‘way to reach the future’ (this includes such winners as the first generation use of interactive white boards, subsuming most learning into some sort of social networking matrix, and so on…). One of the results of these initiatives is that a lot of the previous content has been unceremoniously tossed out the window.
Maybe the best way to look at the end of teaching cursive writing would be to grasp that in the future this may very well be a dead technology…but should schools be driving this change, or should they react to the real changes (versus merely clearing space for more fun topics to teach…). As soon as someone makes a reasonable argument supporting this idea, I will join up too…
Cursive being phased out of U.S. schools
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/07/cursive-finally-being-phased-out-of-u-s-schools
Forget the looping Ls and curving Gs.
Students in Indiana’s public schools will no longer have to learn cursive writing starting this fall.
The state is one among 48 others transitioning to new state-led national learning guides, the Common Core State Standard Initiatives, which no longer require children to learn handwriting. They do, however, have to sharpen their typing skills.
An Indiana Department of Education memo last spring said teachers can still choose to teach cursive writing, or can stop altogether.
“State standards themselves, they’re just supposed to be a guide for what students must know before moving on to the next grade,” said department spokeswoman Stephanie Sample. “And there are lots of little details that aren’t in those standards that kids learn.”
Sample said she has not heard any feedback from parents who are concerned their children will no longer learn a basic, yet fading, skill.
How often does one write in cursive every day? Much of our daily personal and business correspondence is done by a quick e-mail or text message. Note-taking and composing essays or statements are done almost entirely on the computer.
Indiana father Mark Shoup said he wouldn’t be concerned if his children, though now grown, had not learned cursive.
“There are much more important skills I think they take into this century than whether or not they write cursively,” the former teacher said, listing critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and literacy.
“Maybe it’s something we should not give up on, but keep it in perspective of its relative importance in the scheme of things,” Shoup said. “How long we really have children in school and what are our real goals for them?”
Perry Klein, a professor of literacy education at the University of Western Ontario, said a child’s ability to compose depends on whether she can form letters clearly and accurately.
“If students can form letters fluently, then that frees up their attention to focus on the content and language of what they’re writing,” Klein said.
Research has yet to be published, he said, on whether forming those letters works best on a page with a pen or on a computer screen. But as long as they can read what they compose, they will develop the right skills.
“The important thing is that for kids to learn printing and cursive accurately and fluently, and if they have that, then they’ll be able to do written composition in a whole variety of situations,” Klein said.
Marie Picard, a penmanship workbook dealer in London, Ont., said cursive might be fading away, but still exists in letters, envelopes, signatures, and signs.
“Handwriting shows some sort of style and flair and how you are as a person,” she said. “I just think that it’s (becoming) a lost art.”
Sonja Semion, with the Colorado branch of Stand for Children, an education advocacy organization, said with limited resources in classrooms, it’s time to focus not on what has always been taught, but what’s best for children for when they become adults.
“I think schools have to toe a line right now where they have to really prepare kids for the careers of the future,” she said. “We still need writing, some kind of penmanship, but I think the keyboard is really the way it’s going to go. The technology is the future.”
Typing Beats Scribbling: Indiana Schools Can Stop Teaching Cursive
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/06/typing-beats-scribbling-indiana-schools-can-stop-teaching-cursive
Handwriting Is History
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/handwriting-is-history-6540
Handwriting slowly became a form of self-expression when it ceased to be the primary mode of written communication. When a new writing technology develops, we tend to romanticize the older one. The supplanted technology is vaunted as more authentic because it is no longer ubiquitous or official. Thus for monks, print was capricious and script reliable. So too today: Conventional wisdom holds that computers are devoid of emotion and personality, and handwriting is the province of intimacy, originality, and authenticity.
