Why do they bother to teach us cursive in school?
The hardest part of the SAT, for me, was the cursive part that went something to the effect of “I did not cheat on this stupid test” and you had to remember all those cursive letters you haven’t used since second grade. Yes, cursive is a vestigial organ of the American school system. It’s purpose is now irrelevant as we no longer correspond by hand, everything is electronic. Yes a lot of people still hand write but walk into any office in the US and basic word processing skills are required. The serious problem is for those who the system forgot or let slid through and now can’t complete basic tasks, a burden to our economy. I believe most school systems are deemphasizing cursive and allocating more time to learn computing basics. The fact that the majority of people do not use cursive testifies to the uselessness of this means of writing. Besides cursive can be more easily learned by an adult with fine motor skills if they need to learn it. In my experience picking up cursive is much
cursive was the grade that always kept me from straight a’s in elementary school. *grumble* Wow! That was my experience too. “Handwriting” (the class in third grade where they taught us cursive) was the first class I got a “D” in, and was my first experience in hating school. It was so dull and tedious, sitting there practicing letters that I already *KNEW* how to print perfectly well. My 3rd grade teacher was merciless, and made us do extra writing just to get practice. Whenever we had homework, she would make us re-write the question before writing the answer. “Write the question, write the answer. Write the question, write the answer” was her awful little cadence on the subject. Add to that the fact that I was a bright youngster, already reading several levels above my grade. I wanted to actually learn things, not do a bunch of tedious busywork. In the end, cursive practically ruined my handwriting. Before third grade, I had a pretty normal printing style. After third grade, I start
It seems many people here have transferred their feelings about how they were taught cursive handwriting to the actual act of handwriting. “I failed my class in elementary school” or “Mrs. So-and-so was a real *&#(!” do not sound like any reason to seek to abolish one of the fundamental tools of a literate society. MightyNez, I expressed myself poorly because I am still emotional about the evil woman that turned me off to school in 4th grade. The baggage from that idiot’s decision still haunts me to this day. But what I was really getting at is that, aside from having a rather dubious practical application, cursive actively discriminates against left-handed people. American cursive is designed for right-handed people, it is much harder for lefties to adopt. And yet, when I was in school, you adopted the right-handed method, or you failed. I can, and do, write very neatly. But if forced to write like a righty, I write very poorly. My writing was quite legible in 4th-grade. I could easil
