What's next?
Cursive seemed pointless when I was in third grade nearly 30 years ago. Now, many educators and students are wondering why they need to teach and write cursive at all .
I never developed that beautiful looping handwriting like other girls and I abandoned it as quickly as allowed by my report card. Personally, I can't remember the last time I wrote in cursive other than signing my name. There doesn't seem to be a point to it.
So why am I upset that schools are no longer requiring children to learn that time-honored skill of looping l's, bumpy m’s, dotted i's and funny looking Q’s, J’s and G's?
School officials say the fact that cursive writing is not included as one of the items in the high stakes Texas Assessment of Academic Skills tests has also hastened cursive's exit from the classroom. Proponents for retaining this skill in school say the college bound student will also need to print or write in cursive neatly and with enough speed to complete essay tests.
Is that the only reason? How will these children learn to sign their names? Will legal signatures be replaced with X’s? Or will school’s have a tiny block of time where they only teach each child the cursive letters in their own names? What will happen when the girls grow up and marry and take on their husband’s last names. Will the new husband be responsible to teach the new letters to his new bride? Or will girls just option to keep their maiden names to avoid learning the new letters?
And fewer schools are teaching long division now since students can take calculators into the SAT and ACT tests.
But I’m not upset by that at all… long division is a total waste of time.
posted by The Teller | 5:03 AM
4 Comments:
teaching to the test.
I haven't written in cursive for YEARS. My signature is so bad that even I can't read it. I don't know if I see its relevance any longer.
But we seem to be doing that with more and more things. Only teaching what is going to be on the test. I guess that would be fine - if tests actually assessed whether we've been educated.
I used to teach applied lessons at a high school for a side job, and the students had to play on recital every semester. Basically I spent the semester teaching them to play a piece of music and never had time to teach them to play their instrument. I quit because I was ashamed to have my name attached to their inabilities.
I hate teaching the test. I hate studying for the test. The test should discover what you've learned, not what you crammed in your head the night before.
I'm a great test taker but I dump the info from my brain moments after the test.
My question to Rod: What would your signature look like if you never learned cursive?
I always write in cursive. It is a LOT faster than printing!!
And doing division in your head is a lot faster than punching the numbers in the calculator.
Clearly, Texas schools are simply interested in going to a more relaxed, bucolic, and slow-moving time. They must've heard that today's society is much too stressed these days, so taking time to do things slowly must make sense to them. ;)
P.S. I guess I wouldn't have one since "signature" seems to imply cursive. My printed signature tends to be jagged and angled.
Elisa: my mother always writes in cursive as well. Her writing could be displayed in an art museum. And she's fast too. My dad always prints in all uppercase letters. These seem to be polar opposites to me. Both are extremely neat and easy to read; and actually fun to look at.
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