Thoughts on Cursive..

My kids all learned cursive: 1st son, 15, never uses it, never did and has sloppy handwriting. perfers to type everything! teachers don’t want to read cursive so it is never needed. 1st daughter, 13: can do cursive, complains it slows down her thinking, and never does it. teachers at this point don’t want to read it (except for the very old fashioned english teacher last year—all she taught was grammar—no writing, little literature in honors). 2nd daughter, 13: can do cursive slowly, never uses it, no teacher wants to read it —see note above—they were in the same classes last year. All teachers really want you to word process papers.

I agree kids should know how to do it , (maybe)—or at least read it. I think we should demand all 3-5th graders be taught keyboarding. They don’t teach typing or keyboarding in my kids’ schools. Cursive is becoming a dinosauer.

My daughter was given OT (Privately) using Handwriting without Tears in 2nd grade. Cursive is alot of times easier for the child with fine motor problems and/or ADD b/c they never have to take their pencil off the page and it is “smoother”.

She now writes as well (or better) than most other students in her 4th grade classroom. Her 4th grade teacher makes them write in cursive a lot. She has not trouble writing it - she has trouble reading it when others have written. YIKES!

Our son had tremendous difficulties with cursive. Never did get the hang of it, except for rivers of tears during the futile years of attempts. He signs his name by printing it. The banks seem to be accepting the checks he signs when making payment etc…, so he manages. Types pretty much everything except for notes he takes in college classes. Uses the college computer lab for schoolwork when he wants to get stuff done on campus and the home computer for the rest.

Me? I can sign my name in cursive, but you can’t read it. Can’t even remember how to make the letters go (or at least most of them).

Thoughts on cursive… looks nice if you can do it well, very frustrating for those of us who cannot.

Andy

Our son with LD never learned cursive except to write his name…now in 6th grade many of his teachers are insisting that all the kids print so they can read their writing; everything else gets typed. I think cursive is a 4th-5th grade time waster, and is seldom used again.

Karen,

Chris is also having an easier time with cursive. It is easier for some kids. I think it is important for someone like Chris because despite his motor difficulties I think he is a kinesthec learners. When he writes a spelling word he remembers it better.(When I took him to the Metropolitan museum of art he had to touch every Rodin and Van Gogh in the place, a very stressful experience.) I was alway like that. When I wrote something I remembered it. This was so important when taking notes in college.
I don’t know if I had typed my notes in college if I would have remembered them the way I did when I wrote things down. I guess it could have worked but I don’t know if it is the same thing.

Linda

my older two had okay handwrting when first taught(2nd grade in IN) but the newness wore off, it got sloppy, and they battled 4/5/6 grade teachers. Junior high didnt care so they printed and high school prefers printing. I look back at all those battles in the mid grades and resent the grief they got from both school AND me over what turned out to be a nothing issue

When ds3 struggled with cursive, I didnt hesitate to write ‘printing accepted’ into his IEP. Too many other issues to deal with-more than happy to lose THAT one

So once again despite completely opposite test scores, our kids have similarities.

I agree with all of the previous posters that cursive is an outmoded form of communication, and by 4th grade he’ll be keyboarding his assignments.

However, Linda, you make a good point. Writing the letters and words is an important part of learning to read for many kids. Anything to help make that neural connection work!

IF (and it’s a huge if!) properly taught. cursive writing is faster, smoother, and less fatiguing. That’s why it was invented after all!!

History of writing boiled down to a few sentences: earliest writing was simplified pictographs, unsystematic. Romans developed a system of consistent heights, what are our capital letters today; the straight lines and smooth circles were suitable for inscriptions in stone. Monks in the Middle Ages developed uncials which evolved into our present-day lower-case; the reason for the evolution was to make forms that were faster and easier to write in large quantity at reasonable speed (remember they copied whole Bibles by hand, day after day.) Cursive writing evolved out of the lower-case print for the same reason, to reduce fatigue and increase speed. The fatigue reduction and increase in speed come from reducing the number of pen lifts and re-placements, and in using simple rhythmic motions with repetitive forms.

Cursive writing — or good printing — first of all requires a tool that flows smoothly across the page so you can take advantage of that smooth flow and rhythm. (Of course smooth flow and reduced fatigue are good for printing too.) I have a campaign against yellow pencils, which are simply lousy writing tools. Get something that flows smothly, whether a rolling writer or a superfine marker or a cheap fountain pen, and you will see an instant reduction of fatigue and the ability to greatly increase the output of written work (highly recommended for that swamped middle and high schooler.)

Then you need to reduce the habit of gripping the writing tool in a death grip and pressing hard enough to go through four pages. That is another cause of extreme fatigue and stress when writing (or printing) and slow and minimal work.

Our modern writing and printing are the outcome of over a thousand years of development; asking each child to re-invent the wheel doesn’t make sense. As we all learn when we learn any new physical skill, from driving a car to riding a bike to swimming to skiing or whatever, there are certain actions that you do that are counter-intuitive. On a bike or motorcycle, you can make a better turn by counter-steering (going left first before you go right.) On skis, you balance better leaning forward, not sitting back as your instincts first tell you. In a car, you stop better with controlled pressure, not slammed brakes; and you accelerate better in the middle of the gas range, not by flooring most cars. In swimming, you float better and have more control and speed if you put your head down in the water.
In handwriting, whether cursive *or* printing, there are systematic methods and directions that have been developed over hundreds of years. They don’t seem easy or natural to the beginner, any more than the driving, biking, skiing, or swimming techniques seem easy or simple or natural to a beginner. But somehow it’s fine for the swimming coach to say too bad, you have to put your head under water, for the driving instructor to say too bad, you have to hold the wheel with both hands — but it’s *not* OK for a teacher (whose job it is, after all) to say too bad, you make a d this way. If a coach tells a kid to do things his way, he’s being a good coach, but if a teacher (again, her job) tells a kid to do things her way, she’s a terrible autocratic monster who is damaging children. Anyone who thinks I exaggerate can see the emotional post over on homeschooling. So no wonder we have a whole generation of students out there who can’t write!

If you want to improve writing, make it easier and faster, and get more work done in less time with less fatigue, whether cursive OR printing, get a good model, follow the directions, and pay attention to the coach who wrote it. There are reasons for these things.

And last, Keep It Simple. The gopal of writing is to be read. Use a good simple model and work on regularity of form. People who do calligraphy learn that beauty comes from simplicity and regularity, not excess decoration on something lacking basic structure.

Thanks for the tips - I’ll make some of your suggestions when we meet with his teacher!