Cursive Handwriting Getting Erased as Schools Teach Typing Over Script

What's missing from classrooms? EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!

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she's drunk again

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We learned cursive in 2nd grade and were made to use it for most assignments through 4th, being told that it was "essential," and that we "would use it for all important papers" for the rest of our school days. Not true! We hit 5th grade, shifted schools, and switched to typing everything. And promptly forgot cursive. I'm a high school freshman now, and most of my friends would be hard-pressed if required to have a cursive signature, even!

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If my childrens' school had not taught cursive writing, I would have taught them myself. I can't imagine not being able to read a handwritten document. Sad enough, that few people bother to actually write a letter, anymore. When, someone sends you a handwritten letter you receive a part of them. I can look on my grandmother's signature and imagine her actually putting pen in hand.

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I'm 31 years old and haven't used cursive writing since junior high school.

I always hated how complicated it was and how very few cursive letters actually looked like their printed counterparts.

Of course, it's not all my fault. When I was in first grade, my teach was so old she'd been my father's first grade teacher. And she was an awful teacher. One of the worst.

See, I'm left-handed. Exclusively left-handed. When I was a child my right hand couldn't grasp things very well so after they dropped to the floor my left hand automatically picked them up.

Well, my first grade teacher, being as old school as she was and as set in her ways as she was, didn't want to teach me to write.

She literally brought my parents in one day and told them, "If you don't take the pen out of your son's left hand and put it in his right hand where it belongs, then I'm not going to waste my time trying to teach this child how to write."

This woman made me feel every day like I was a freak and I'd never amount to anything simply because my left hand is dominant. I was good at spelling and grammar but my writing skills were forever hindered by the fact that this old witch decided I wasn't worth her time.

So, I'm glad to hear that hand-writing is being phased out. I don't know a single person who actually hand-writes anything. Typing is much clearer, much easier to learn and it doesn't matter if you're right-handed or a southpaw like me.

It simply isn't necessary.

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How are they going to learn how to sign there name??

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how is somebody going to sign their name?

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Holly.........you are totally correct! There are none so blind that will not see, and most Americans have their heads in the sand about the debasement of a classical and traditional education. The kids will be that much poorer later in life!

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What about a signature, do we all just make an X?

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The idea of conversing in short hand (texting) completely disregarding the form and beauty of our language is disturbing enough. But to think of robbing future generations the wonder of holding hand written letters, reading what their ancestors had to say in their own hands is unthinkable. There is becoming less and less reason to send children to school at all.

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I am a senior, I do not care if a child or adult can write cursive, but I think they all should learn to read it. Our Constitution is written in cursive and many history facts are too. The scriptures are written not printed, I think anyone who cannot read cursive will be at a loss in the future.

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And never in all their lives will they ever need at least a pencil and paper, and never will they have to write something important and immediate. STOP - where is my smart phone, a word processor, a computer, a com device. If they had pencil and paper, even a stick charred at one end and a piece of bark, what will they do - scribble?

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I had to learn cursive in elementary school, but once I started middle school all of my teachers told their classes NOT to write in cursive because it was easier for them to read print. It seems like a big waste of time to bother teaching a skill that will never be used again in life or ever serve any real purpose. The time spent teaching cursive writing could be spent improving reading and grammar skills.

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I'm 16 years old, and while many of my peers may text in the middle of class, I rather work on my neat and artisty *both by how they appear and what I've written* essays. I used to have trouble in school, and I was even considered for Special education at one point in my childhood. But if there was one place I was consistent in from the very beginning, it was learning how to write in cursive. Now I'm in two AP classes *English/Composition and US History*, and I much perfer handwriting. My midterm is next week, and getting all my remaining work aside, I sure as heck would rather use script than type anything down on a hard, impersonable computer. Hello, how are we to make anymore distinguishable signatures without at least some of us using cursive? It's artistic. It's intelligent. Beautiful. Then again, I may have had easier time since I'm Muslim and American-Indian *In my culture, calligraphy is cool! Teachers look at my posters and say I should be a calligraphist :-D.*. When I was a little girl, I would put tender loving care into every little letter in my workbook. Oh, it was wonderful. The pictures in tehre were funny, and had animals. And it was colored! Yay! Anyway, if we give up script, we may as well give up showing kids how to draw or fold thier own clothes. We're already giving in to a cold, automated world. We might as well show kids how beautiful and stressfree scriptive handwriting can be, and it can be an optional course. At least make your work your own.

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Wow, what's next? It's bad enough when a cashier can't do simple math in his/her head, but now cursive is going to be discontinued?? I am a middle aged professional who spends most of my day (and evening) on a computer or texting on a cell phone; however, I rarely hand print anything and prefer to write in cursive. Yes, I actually still send handwritten letters and actually sign all my greeting cards! Imagine that!!! Our social skills are diminishing rapidly . . . .

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TJefferson - How many patients get the wrong meds? What are the stats? Does this go on where you work? I'm asking because this has never happened to me or my family (including my 80 year old parents who get a lot of prescriptions for various things).

Our primary doc types his scripts on a laptop he takes from patient to patient. No one at our pharmacy has every complained about any of our docs' handwriting and I've never heard of any of my friends getting the wrong meds from their doctors, despite the commonly held view about doctors and their handwriting. So I'm curious where you get your facts from on this?

Yes, writing legibly is important for many fields, but the pretty cursive loops - not so much (unless you are hiring a calligrapher).

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With technology moving faster than most of can think, we're on the hinge of everything new regarding communication, both personal and business. It's too bad, though. Teachers have so much to teach that cursive writing skills fall at tthe bottom of any curriculum. I predict cursive writing will be an insignificant part of public education in the very near future - much like my Gregg Shorthand. I use it everyday, but only to the amusement of my co-workers. I'm such a dinosaur!

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Why do we need to teach/learn cursive? Where do you see it being used, outside of academia? It is not used in street signs, on menus, on bus schedules, on applications, rarely on restuarant/store signs, and certainly not in books. Children don't need to know how to write or read cursive, it isn't part of the mainstream society anymore. They can read a variety of script from the computer, which is what is typically used for communication and the majority of written communication is typed or printed because it is more legible. Why waste valuable learning time on something people rarely use? I would rather teach and have my children learn how to better communicate with others. I don't want thme penalized for poor penmanship if their ideas and structure are correct. Also, there are many things that teachers can do to work on the physiological(fine motor) needs of children. It doesn't have to come from teaching cursive. As for signing their names, a signature is a signature.... it does not have to be in cursive.

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I think kids should learn how to write in cursive. It's not about writing grandma a thank-you note, but about hand-eye coordination. I learned how to write in cursive in first grade. We weren't allowed to print any letters; print was only for reading. In high school we had to hand-write pages and pages of essays, and the more coordinated you were, the faster you got done. Nowadays there really doesn't seem to be much use of actual handwriting as everything is typed, but one should at east be able to sign one's name.

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