Cursive Handwriting Getting Erased as Schools Teach Typing Over Script

I never could learn cursive anyway. Just printed really fast. It never hurt me. I can type and have a Ph.D.

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why doesn't anyone state the obvious....it takes about 2 weeks to learn how to write "longhand" and i have never met someone who did learn and later forgot how. how lazy are you people.

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That's "keyboarding" not typing you neanderthal!

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So.......we get to PRINT our signatures?????

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And they can't read, do simple arithmetic (without a calculator), and... Is it any wonder that our level of academic skills is getting further behind the rest of the world???

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buffalobeardy - OK!! Thanks for clearing that up for us! You shred!!

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The article states:
"A lot of my students over the years have stopped being able to read cursive writing, so when I write on the white board, I have to make sure to write in print because they can't read it," Jackson, who has taught English for 20 years, tells the newspaper.

So, if they quit "understanding" math will the teachers stop teaching it too?

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In the late nineties I was a trained therapist with the NILD program which is based in Norfolk, Va. This one-on-one educational program involves various techniques to use with intelligent children who learn differently. The core technique is called Rhythmic Writing which is basically cursive writing done in ways that stimulate the brain. One aspect includes mathematics. My hope at the time was that it would be taught school-wide each day, and spread to other schools in area, state, and even nationally. There is much research to confirm the value both by the medical and educational fields. It seems this may be the message in Quendolyn's response. I was taught the Peterson Writing system in the days the writing specialist visited each classroom and taught a delightful lesson each grading period; however, by the time I was the teacher these writing visits were spasmodic, later only by request, and finally we just turned the pupil's specimens into the office for pick-up and evaluation. I was a decent cursive writer, but evolved into a printer, even my official signature, in my adult life. This was probably due to teaching elementary, usually primary grades plus copy-catting my older, role-model sister. Even so, I definitely favor not only maintaining, but emphasizing cursive writing in all our schools because I'm convinced it's of great value to all students. Yes, use technology, but maintain the basics: reading, WRITING, and arithmetic!

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My kids go to a charter school in Utah and they start writing in cursive in kindergarten. They are required to write everything in cursive. The are given papers three times a day and in the older grades every day practice it during school and at home. It is too sad that these things are going away.

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And without cursive skills how are the kids going to grow up and sign documents such as a mortgage, bank account, utility, accounts, etc. I guess just put a big "X".

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I have a 30, 27,20,and17 year old none learned to write in script
at school. The 17 year old cannot read script.

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I learned cursive in 3rd grade, which was six years ago for me. And I have yet to use it. I guess they still teach it but nobody uses it anymore except teachers. But I do think everybody should learn it, but its up to them if they use it.

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I see a possible career opportunity for future entrepreneurs translating cursive, such as specialists do with hieroglyphics. Could be very lucrative, as we are gradually losing the English language to Spanish, ebonics and texting.

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I agree that learning cursive is important, without it, we are dumbing down America, one lazy learner at a time. At the ripe old age of 20, it must be wonderful to have the life experience to never have to sign anything. Not your mortgage, your drivers license, your children's report cards or permission slips. I print and write cursive, I type and text. I guess I am a pretty well rounded adult. And i'm old enough to know that everything I know is useful.

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You're all wonderful at logical fallacies, you know that? Really, this forum is a stunning example of slippery slope. Remind me to pull it up next time I'm in a rhetoric class. "Loss of the beauty of the written word." You can't grasp how gorgeous and poetic the English language can be in print? Well that's depressing. "Nothing to teach our children in school." Except maybe global history, US history, reading, writing, analytical thinking, earth science, chemistry, biology, arithmetic, literature, computer science, algebra, calculus, sexual and health education, physics, economics, political science and, you know, everything else besides cursive that you learn between kindergarten and senior year of high school. "How will they sign documents?" How long does it teach someone to sign their name? Seriously. Certainly not the length of time my elementary school poured into cursive. This is a new world from what it was even 10 years ago. That requires new skill sets to be learned at younger ages. Something has to give, may as well be cursive. It's not necessary for literacy or analytical thinking. Not knowing cursive doesn't stop you from writing letters or notes (abhorring cursive has certainly never kept me from sending letters to friends, ex boyfriends or family members, often for no reason other than I like to make people smile).

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As an engineer who gave up cursive in favor of engineering print decades ago, I am quite insulted that engineers are grouped with doctors as examples of people with illegible writing skills. While my print is not perfect is is very readable by all. I know a number of engineers who hand print so perfectly one would swear it was done by machine (or computer). Before the days of computer design and drafting, good hand printing skills were required to ensure engineering drawings and other design documents could be correctly read.

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So what happens when the computers crash? Is it going to be like the problems the fast food industry has with making change??????

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Alicia, no one is telling you what to do. You can keep writing in your
hideous, soulless print if you choose, but don't start telling others
how their children should be educated.

I know you're bitter, but just because you weren't taught to write
correctly, doesn't mean others should be denied that opportunity.

What others are saying about this generation being dumbed down is
absolutely correct. I am nineteen, and the average kid in my high
school classes was never even taught how to hold a pen. They "fist"
it in this hideous fashion, with their fingers and knuckles contorted
in all these hideous directions. Half of them don't even distinguish
between lower and upper cases, they will just write certain letters in
upper cases all the time, and others in lower. It is a complete
abomination.

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