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Thread: High school grad can't read cursive.

  1. #16
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    starting to see why home schooling so popular.

  2. #17
    Learned both in school but have forgotted how to write it. Reading, no problem.

    Erik
    Ex-SCM and Felder rep

  3. #18
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    I also learned it in school starting in the second grade. But my own handwriting has never been "cursive" ... it's more a combination of printing and cursive-ish. Any serious writing I've done in the past several decades came off the keyboard and printer. I'm 64. So I can appreciate why there is little or no focus on cursive writing in elementary and secondary education these days...fewer and fewer people actually use it and in business/industry, it's not used at all. Honestly, there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to education...problem solving, thinking, organization, etc., in addition to rote knowledge.

    One other thing...some cursive is easier to read than other cursive, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO's cursive is nearly impossible for me to read and I'm generally pretty good with such things. It's more like scribbling. LOL My mother's was very neat, on the other hand (pardon the expression) and likely readable by most folks including people who didn't formally "learn" cursive.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #19
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    Not to be too off topic but... I have read that the US supreme court will not accept legal documents written in Times New Roman or any other font that is sans serif.
    Also black letters on white background is the easiest to read. Switch either one and the best you can hope for is 80% as readable. Some combinations drop below 50%
    Bill D

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    One other thing...some cursive is easier to read than other cursive, too. Professor Dr. SWMBO's cursive is nearly impossible for me to read and I'm generally pretty good with such things. It's more like scribbling. LOL My mother's was very neat, on the other hand (pardon the expression) and likely readable by most folks including people who didn't formally "learn" cursive.
    Isn't that part of medical school curriculum?

  6. #21
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    Imagine an American child who cannot read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by julian abram View Post
    Yep, the wife has retired after teaching 8th grade science for 20+ years. No cursive taught in our district. What folks don't realize is very little grammar is taught as well. No more instruction on diagraming sentences, nouns, verbs, etc. in our district. My wife purchased grammar books and taught our daughters grammar in the evenings.
    AFAIK our district has also dropped the grammar formalism once prevalent, however the kids coming out of our schools write beautifully, with correct grammar and spelling. Much better than we did long ago. Instead of diagramming word relationships they focus on constructing sentences that make sense, but more importantly, before they start writing they think about what they want to say, outline their key points, organize those ideas into a flow that makes sense, and then flesh out each idea to create paragraphs that are coherent and build an argument as you move from paragraph to paragraph.

    I didn't learn how to do that until I got to grad school and worked with a prof who was also an editor. My first paper went through 26 drafts as he hammered on me to both think and write coherently. I could diagram sentences to beat the band, but that didn't do squat for my writing. The evidence suggests there are better ways. I won't deny that knowing the difference between an adverb and an adjective is pretty essential. Somehow our schools are accomplishing the desired outcome with many fewer rote tasks.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Outten View Post
    Imagine an American child who cannot read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution
    Not being able to understand it is a bigger shame.
    Last edited by Bruce Page; 06-07-2021 at 5:09 PM. Reason: Removed political comment per TOS
    Confidence: The feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation

  9. #24
    I'm tempted to join those with the sentiment that the loss of cursive is yet another example of how things are deteriorating for kids today.

    But another part of me feels they are facing a exponentially changing world that demands a different sort of aptitude and a different mindset that those of us over 50 just don't have. The way everything works today from consumerism, education, information, finance, politics, healthcare. It's all so different.
    I find myself often wanting to teach my teenage kids the way we did things "in my day". Sometimes its the right thing to teach, and sometimes it's actually not.

    I think the right question is what will poise a kid for success in the future and it might mean letting go of the nostalgia of the past. At least some of it.
    If the schools have adopted STEM based curriculum for these reasons, and if cursive is important to a parent, maybe it's on them to teach it at home. Pick your battles
    Last edited by Edwin Santos; 06-06-2021 at 12:53 PM.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Outten View Post
    Imagine an American child who cannot read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution
    One of those cases where it's the thought that counts, I think. Being able to understand it is way more important that being able to unravel the original script (I've tried and mostly can't, despite endless hours of being drilled in "cursive") Consider that perhaps a hundredth of 1% of the world's Christians can either speak the languages of the bible or read the script it's written in. (Not counting, of course, the ones who think that Moses and Jesus spoke English )

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Outten View Post
    Imagine an American child who cannot read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution
    Yes, and i used to include the Magna Carta too, but like Jerry, i have serious reservations about whether most Americans have actually ever tried to read the ENTIRE Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

    I lament the loss of cursive, but the the thoughts here are making me rethink it. Good insight, gents. Not sure you have convinced me -yet - but suddenly i am less strident about it, which has to be a good thing, right?

    Also, not to hijack the thread, but i find the loss of critical thinking skills to be a bigger failure of the educational system, and society in general, than the passing of The Palmer Method of cursive that the Catholic nuns literally beat into my hands.

  12. #27
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    I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that learning how to type is a lot more important these days than cursive.

    I learned cursive in grande school but haven’t used it in so long I have to google (I type to do that) how to form some letters when my 8 year old daughter asks. She’s better at cursive than me.

  13. #28
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    Having gone to eight or nine different schools before entering high school, my handwriting instruction (and all the rest of my education) was (literally) all over the map and I never got very good at cursive. My parents, both products of parochial schools overseen by ruler wielding nuns, had excellent handwriting and could never understand why I couldn't write legibly. It was so difficult for me to write that when I was in the Navy I would sneak up to the personnel office after hours and borrow one of their IBM Selectrics to write my letters home. Finally in college during my drafting and mechanical drawing courses I learned hand lettering, and I've never looked back.

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    Not to be too off topic but... I have read that the US supreme court will not accept legal documents written in Times New Roman or any other font that is sans serif.
    Also black letters on white background is the easiest to read. Switch either one and the best you can hope for is 80% as readable. Some combinations drop below 50%
    Bill D
    Do you mean any other font that is serif? Times New Roman is not a sans serif font.
    Last edited by Frank Pratt; 06-06-2021 at 2:52 PM.

  15. #30
    Roger, Manny Fewer is a smart guy.....but shouldn’t that be WRITTEN tasks?

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