Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire should our children be tought cursive writing in school?

is there any point any more? most people dont hand write most things, and those who do, most often print. is it really worth it to teach them how to do the same thing, just in a different way?

You ever signed your name?

Of course they should, proper cursive as taught in the 19th century. You know, the kind you can actually read!

Yes.


Travis

Imagine your kid's future employer.
Handing him / her this cryptic message.
Written on a legal pad, in ink.

they'll be happy they practiced this dying art form!

Huge waste of time for the most part. When they need it, they can pick it up in no time at all. Spending large amounts of time on it before then is a lot like trying to teach a pig to sing.

Cursive is one of the little bits of knowledge that is eroding away. You cannot just pick it up in no time, it is a skill, and as such, requires practice.

Might as well stop teaching basic math, since everyone has a calculator, right?

I don't see them as the same thing at all. To me, cursive writing is something "pretty" as opposed to manuscript, which is utilitarian. As for math, I am very much in favor of the basic facts, as well as the basic operations, being learned. Where I break with tradition is in that I believe that a reasonably intelligent person can pick up everything that heads are beaten against walls over for six or seven years in about a month when the person reaches an age and maturity level where he wants to learn it.

Why bother learning to read, what with TV and books on CD-ROM?

Again, reading is absolutely essential to further learning. Cursive writing is not.

Exactly!
Or count for that matter
The cash register at McD's does that for you!

Yes, they should plus math, reading, history, spelling, and English as a first language. All students should have a grasp of the basics before they graduate to the next grade.

I went to school for 20 years. The primary skill that I learned was to sit in a room full of people and formulate written answers to a set of questions without any collaboration with anyone else or any access to research or source material. I got very good at it, but the skill had no useful application in the real world.

My comic answer was going to be, "Only if they're not going to be doctors."

I still think it's important, although I am a self-proclaimed Luddite in many areas. Maybe it's best not to listen to me.

Penny

Yes, they should be taught cursive and are in the school where my wife works. It's a shame that kids today and going back probably sixty or so years, don't have the beautiful cursive writing and penmanship that my Grandfather's generation had.

Yes, children should be taught cursive. It is lazy people who prints everything! VAnimrod is right about signing checks and other important documents. And another reason is if you have any hopes of your kids ever going to medical school they will need to know how to scribble properly!

My issue isn't with the cursive writing instruction, but with teaching Spanish in 1st grade in a midwestern town with no spanish population base.

Or engineers.

Oh my. You developed your brain and your ability to reason and organize your thoughts and arguments. You learned the most effective way to express those things. How can that not have a useful application in the real world? The subject matter itself is of secondary importance to what you really learned how to do.

Here at my university we don't have a "pre-law" major per se, but tell students to major in what interests them, as the most important thing is for them to learn how to think, reason, and be articulate in what they produce. Writing well is also of the upmost importance. The specific law subject matter can be acquired in law school, where it is assumed that students at that point can already think clearly, reason, and articulate.

Penny

True. It's a shame that it's passing into history, but it's easier to print in the rare cases you need to write a note these days. Nobody writes papers, books, letters, etc., anymore. You type those on a keyboard, or text them on a cell phone. I've forgotten how to write some letters of the alphabet in script, it's been so long.