The obvious problem that is debated here is whether public schools in the United States or else where should teach cursive writing (in other words handwriting) or should just teach student how to type. In the new digital age, it is logical to think that it is more important for student to know how to type since most of the tasks at hand today are digital and can be done with a computer. However isn't it still important for the young to have eligible handwriting? The Common Core Curriculum believes that it is more important for students today to learn how to type instead of practicing there handwriting because to them typing will help the young people in success in their future endeavors. However another problem is also addressed in the article it is that some student are starting to be unable to read cursive writing or messy handwriting in general because they are too used to the "perfect" printed writing that is produced when one types. The Common Core Curriculum believes that it is more essential to learn how to type compared to how to write however no one can really know what is going to happen in the future and which can be a bigger advantage. Thus I believe that they should not have taken the cursive writing classes out the curriculum they can choose to spend less time on it, however not take it out all together because it may be an advantage in the new generation. I agree with those English teachers and the British system and curse writing is important because this helps student have eligible hand writing in addition to teaching students to read cursive, however typing should come after the mastering of cursive writing.
This can relate to the really frequently talked about global environmental issue of global warning. For the past few years environmentalist have been predicting what is to come and reasoning the disasters at hand. However like cursive vs. typing we really don't know what is to come thus we can only guess from what we know right now what will be better for us in the future. We can never be sure until the future become the present. We can just hope to be well prepared for everything that is to come. We should prepare both with learning to write and to type because we don't know what is going to be used more frequently. Therefore we as human should prepare ourselves as well rounded as we can so that the day we face the end the world or the real world after college we can be confident that we can face it.
I understand the point that the article (and to a lesser extent you) are trying to get across. From what you've presented, it seems to be true that the cutting of cursive writing from curricula can negatively affect the neatness of the students' writing as well as their capability to read and comprehend cursive.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this brings up the question of why cursive is really even necessary? Nowadays, the use of cursive has considerably decreased, so to speak in everyday and even in formal use. The fonts used even in calligraphy aren't even cursive and while I do believe that it is important to retain our cultural heritage and learn how to read it, I disagree on your point that it should be taught in schools.
In all honesty I do not see the use of knowing how to write in cursive. Our school taught it to us as elementary students, and to this day I still know how to read and (sort of anyways) write in cursive, but it hasn't really helped me in life. My handwriting (as my elementary and middle school teachers can readily testify) did not improve as a result. I rarely handwrite essays nowadays and most of the time if the teachers want anythign handwritten, they prefer it in print rather than in cursive.
It's not that I believe that the teaching of cursive should be wiped out altogether (being able to read it is always handy, and no matter what it still is part of our cultural heritage), but I honestly do not see the necessity of knowing how to write it in every day life.
The first question that comes to mind from reading this post is "is there really a correlation between cursive and eligible handwriting?" Personally, I haven't seen this. I wouldn't consider my handwriting neat (and I seriously doubt other people would as well), despite the fact that I have learned how to write cursive. I do believe, however, that there could be a correlation between how often people actually hand write and legibility. Even in your original article, it's mentioned that "studies from Indiana University and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, which suggested that writing by hand increases brain activity and memory of concepts". Notice that it simply says "writing by hand" and does not specify cursive handwriting. On the other hand, as you have already pointed out, we live in a new digital age where the use of typing is essential. Therefore, I think that it would benefit children to have a balance between learning how to type well and hand write well. However, whether or not the children must learn cursive or print is rather irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThere are some advantages in learning cursive. As long as we handwrite, we're going to have to write in cursive. Have you ever noticed that when you write quickly, your words are basically in cursive? Cursive is also (usually) a MUCH faster way of writing because you don't need to pick up your pencil or pen after each letter. We should allow elementary school students to learn the proper way of cursive because it may encourage them to write neater and faster in the future (it may not MAKE them have more legible handwriting, but it may help). I do agree, though, that schools could put less of an emphasis on learning cursive - at least compared to how it was taught and enforced at my elementary school, where we were forced to write EVERYthing in perfect cursive. I also agree with what Eric said, that it is part of our "cultural heritage" and I think it should still be taught. There ARE still people who write in cursive, and pretty much everyone writes in some form of cursive, as I stated in the first few sentences.
ReplyDeleteAs for print vs typing, I think it is inevitable that typing will be the more popular medium of writing than actual handwriting in the near future. There's an increasing trend over the years, as more and more schools are allowing laptops to be used in the classrooms. Still, there are times when some documents are required to be written in hand, such as legal documents. And, I feel that as more and more people are typing, their literacy levels are going down. For example, they type on Microsoft Word, which automatically corrects their grammar and spelling for them, so they don't care as much about learning how to spell or how to use proper grammar.
On another note, this reminds me of the "debate" on real books vs Kindles, iPads, etc. Now that our society is more dependent on technology, I feel as if we're replacing the real world with the virtual world. I still prefer actual books and I would never want to use a Kindle - I don't even like reading from a computer screen that much. I feel as if books are more real and personal because they are actually concrete, I suppose. Now that we use computers more, we don't like to do anything in real life and I feel like that ruins relationships with people. In the same way, on a personal level, there are times when I prefer handwritten documents, such as handwritten letters. I feel as if they are more personal, while a letter that's typed out doesn't feel as "real".
As the post and other commenters have stated, the main issue is whether or not cursive writing should be taught at school. In my opinion, I don't find see a need in learning cursive at school nowadays. Since people have technology readily available, typing is much more frequently used these days. However, writing is still important since it is still necessary in some cases, like writing an exam. Even though writing is important, it doesn't mean that people have to learn how to write in cursive. I understand that cursive writing was invented so it'd be quicker to write down your ideas on a piece of paper, yet it has been replaced by typing.
ReplyDeleteOne example of a technique being outdated is shorthand writing. Shorthand writing was used for reporters to jot down notes or quotes, but typing or recorders have made shorthand writing unnecessary.
Since we don't see cursive writing that often anymore, there's no need for people to be able to read it. Latin and Greek were also being taught in school in the past as people thought it was a necessity since important books were in those two languages. However, as you see nowadays, we hardly have to deal with those languages anymore so they don't teach them as much in schools.
While learning cursive writing could be a way to broaden our education, it has obviously become insignificant. What I think is important for students and teachers is to know their priorities in learning useful skills. There is no point in teaching and learning something that is no longer practical or applicable to the real world.
I remembered when we had to learn cursive/handwriting in 4th grade. It was like this whole new world was suddenly introduced to me, the grown up world where all our opinions had to be expressed in cursive handwriting. In the blog, the author referred to the cursive as "in other words, handwriting." I didn't understand what he/she meant by that because cursive as I know it, is very different from printing, which is, to shape the words in their basic form. Webster-Merriam defined Cursive writing as of writing: flowing often with the strokes of successive characters joined and the angles rounded. That is not printing. But because the author had not distinguished what she meant when she said that schools should not learn cursive, I will assume that she meant that schools should not teach writing in general because "most of the tasks at hand today are digital and can be done with a computer." That, I disagree with, because computers as we know it, breaks down…and we never know what might happen to unsaved work or, even worse, lost work. If we allow ourselves to rely completely on computers and their ability to simplify and word process our world, then we are basically giving up our independence and our abilities to express our opinions. So, I end with the conclusion that schools should continue to teach handwriting in general, because I honestly can't imagine a world where people can't write and can only type. As a generation, we learned to adapt to typing from writing and learned to balance the two, so I think that younger generations shouldn't find it too difficult either.
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