Education Funny of the Day - No Cursive for You!
From an article in Linkara, about different experiences with learning and teachers.
The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win.
There are plenty of amazing teachers who go the extra mile, in public or private schools, but it’s very sad and pretty mentally dangerous when teachers like those mentioned above not only refuse to do so but tamp down creativity in various ways. It sucks :/
The American school system is not here to educate us or to encourage us to learn; it’s here to keep us in line and silent. It’s here to keep us from deviating and being our own people and forming our own ideas. Don’t let it win.
There are plenty of amazing teachers who go the extra mile, in public or private schools, but it’s very sad and pretty mentally dangerous when teachers like those mentioned above not only refuse to do so but tamp down creativity in various ways. It sucks :/
Comments
-North-end Mom
NEP
Further research demonstrates that the fastest, clearest handwriters are neither the “print”-writers nor the cursive writers. The highest speed and highest legibility in handwriting are attained by those who join only some letters, not all of them – making only the simplest of joins, omitting the rest, and using print-like shapes for letters whose printed and cursive shapes disagree.
Reading cursive matters, still — just because cursive exists where one cannot avoid the need to read it. However, even quite young children can be taught to read handwriting which is more complex than what they are taught or encouraged to produce? Reading cursive can be taught in just 30 to 60 minutes — even to five- or six-year-olds, once they read ordinary print. (In fact, now there’s even an iPad app to teach how: named “Read Cursive,” of course — http://appstore.com/readcursive .) So why not simply teach children to _read_ cursive — along with teaching other vital skills, such as some handwriting style that’s actually typical of effective handwriters?
Educated adults increasingly quit cursive. In 2012, handwriting teachers from all over North America were surveyed at a conference hosted by Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of cursive textbooks. Only 37 percent wrote in cursive; another 8 percent printed. The majority — 55 percent — wrote a hybrid: some elements resembling “print”-writing, others resembling cursive. When even most handwriting teachers do not themselves use cursive, why mandate it? Don't forbid it, certainly, but why worship it?
More of a hassle was the younger kid, when his passport application was sent back with an official letter, "Only cursive signatures are accepted." So after more applications, delays, and more trips to the Post Office, he had to make up an official cursive signature as an early teen which we hope will be a match years from now when he needs to renew his passport- good luck with that!
A hybrid fan
I had a principal once who decided my D'Nealian trained student with beautiful handwriting needed to change to Handwriting w/out Tears because that was our curriculum. I ignored it.
However, I do have students who are doing some cursive badly - very badly. I want them to learn to control the fine art of handwriting before moving on to a more-complicated(?) or different form. Creativity doesn't always replace practice.
So, I am pretty demanding on the handwriting front at first because they need to practice and practicing proper grips, position, line placement and orientation helps them get better.
No, I don't like the idea that a child can't do his name in cursive as long was he's practicing it correctly. And Aidan'sname is very nicely written. Primary teachers have a lot of bad habits to change unless of course you want a whole bunch of writing that nobody can read.
Still, I'd love to go back to the "art of handwriting" and do it like the Romanians: one beautiful method for life.
I started teaching cursive at home last year and also downloaded some apps. We set a low bar in schools.
Ann
Thus, I've never understood those who hold cursive as some magic mark of sophistication or intelligence. It's not really necessary today, and easy enough to pick up if you need it or want it.
Granted, I wouldn't burst the bubble of a six-year-old, either, especially if he was able to demonstrate that he'd already mastered printing.
-NewB
Furthermore,I've checked with attorneys and there's no legal basis for bureaucratic statements that they must reject a non-cursive signature, (Did you know that about half of former President Carter's White House signatures were print-written? What he signed remains legally binding.)
"In France, Chile and Great Britain they start teaching cursive writing when they start learning to write - in kindergarten or its equivalent. This was confirmed to me by friends in each of those countries."
Chile's cursive is indeed like ours — the traditional French style is also similar, but (as of a year or is ago, when last I checked), primary schools were now being allowed to choose between a conventional 100%-joined style and a hybrid-like, semi-joined/print-ish that closely resembles italic handwriting. (I can dig up a link to both of them, if you are interested in seeing these.)
In the UK, there is a wide range of school styles which are named "cursive." Some of them are 100% joined!,like conventional USA cursive — but most of those 100%-joined styles use print-style CAPITAKS/b/f/k/r/s/z & would therefore be considered "not cursive" in a USA classroom ... most of the rest (among what gets called "cursive" in the UK) are about 50% joined, with print-like letters throughout, and would DEFINITEKY not be called "cursive" if seen in an American classroom. (This is from observation — I've known a couple of UK families that came to the USA and couldn't figure out why the teacher was telling their children "Your handwriting is not cursive, and must be cursive!" For one family, things got really messy when the teacher publicly called the but a "liar" fir saying that this WAS cursive according to how he'd been taught.)
"Note that the teacher is using the hybrid method. Shouldn't that have been printed?"
Ha, ha, yes indeed! Most teachers (and other people) who THINK they "print" are actually, subconsciously' hybrid-users — I've seen hybrid-using teachers/parents telling their own kids (who also hybridize) to "please just print, like me" when the kid in fact is HYBRIDIZING just like them!
Even worse — many teachers (and other people) who think they, themselves, write in cursive are actually hybrid-writers and have never noticed that, either: so when they have kids who print (or hybridize), they tell those kids "You must write in cursive, like me" and the kid gets in major trouble if s/he points out how the teacher is REALLY writing ... I have seen kids called everything from "perceptually distorted" to flat-out "liars" just for accurately observing that the way the teacher writes isn't remotely like the way she THINKS she's writing ...
I have to admit with some of these examples leave me thinking - so you discovered that there are some bad teachers (or textbook pages, or homework lessons)? It doesn't tell us how many teachers are doing this sort of thing, any more than one example of welfare fraud tells us how effective TANF is. But it does get a chuckle (or a tear).
On handwriting, I have to agree with NewB and others - there is nothing magic about what we call cursive and I would be glad to see us get away from these basterdized English roundhands. A semi-joined italic like Geddy-Dubose is a much better handwriting system that doesn't require learning multiple letterforms, and is more likely to result in legible handwriting.
(It's also funny to see Kate Gladstone chiming in here - all the way from Albany NY! She must have a regular google search to seek out articles for her crusade against cursive. Which I generally agree with, but the smoke-jumper thing here is amusing.)
Mom of 4