Handwriting in the Digital Age
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-07-28/handwriting-digital-age
A child starting kindergarten this fall might only study cursive writing in history class. A growing number of schools no longer require teachers to provide instruction in cursive. Those in favor of dropping “joined up writing” say teaching it is time consuming and can be easily replaced in a world of texting and word processing. Proponents say handwriting helps foster fine motor skills and other cognitive development -- and that taking pen to paper is not only a beautiful art form but can be a means of individual expression. Guest host, Susan Page, and her guests discuss the fate of handwriting and penmanship in the digital age.
Guests
Anne Trubek
Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Oberlin College
Kitty Burns Florey
author of "Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting"
Tracey Bailey
Director of Education Policy for the Association of American Educators and 1993 National Teacher of the Year
Karen Epstein
fourth grade teacher at Rockwell Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland
Comments
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Not learning to write because there are electronic media - isn't that like saying because you have a car you don't need to know how to walk?
There is another, unspoken, reason for the decline in teaching handwriting -- state mandated testing. Teachers in Texas must cram a whole year's curriculum into 3/4 of a school year and spend time training students how to analyze the multiple choice questions in order to pass the state mandated tests. The only critereon used to judge teachers, schools and districts is the percentage of students that pass these tests. The teachers simply do not have the time in the school day to teach handwriting. I know some middle school language arts teachers who teach cursive in the last 6 weeks of school after the first round of testing is over. Obviously, this is far from ideal, but the students love learning grown up writing.
I think it is not just cursive that is suffering... many of these kids can't print! Sometimes you just need to be able to pick up a pen and write a quick note, but if the person you leave your post-it for can't read it you have not communicated. This is a critical life skill, and we should not forget that.
y
I think it's sad that this generation will be unable to write a legible thank you note, or have a nice signature. Yes, we use keyboards for many things, but cursive writing is still a necessary skill.
Since so many kids now just aspire to be professional athletes or celebrities, maybe we can motivate them by explaining that they'll have to have a distinctive signature to sign autographs... LOL
Cursive writing goes the way of simple addition and subtraction - there is a machine that does that so why take the time to teach it?
Seems it is OK for the cashiers to not be able to add and subtract now days since the machine tells them what change to make - they never seem to understand why I am giving them some coins along with the paper money - and since they have already entered the paper money into the machine they have no idea what to do with the coinage I have given them.
To not teach cursive writing I suppose these youngsters will just use the old "X" to sign their paychecks.
Already grammar and spelling are not necessary - even discouraged.
So what do these people do when the power goes out? The world stops, that's what!
I've never had a job application ask how many words per minute I can write in cursive.
No- it's like saying because you have a car you don't need to know how to ride a horse.
I'm not a spring chicken (62) and never had the best handwriting but after using computers since my time in the USAF 1968 to present, I can't read my own writing unless I print. It is frustrating at times when I take notes in meetings. Script is no longer natural but requires paying attention now.
I totally disagree with the proposition that there is no correlation between cursive and "intelligence".
I struggled with cursive and had to spend a lot of time after school and at home practicing.
However, I believe that like music ... cursive at an early age develops brain connections that lead to creativity as well as better scores in mathematics and overall generally higher IQs.
Note the influence on cultures that retain logical extensions to cursive, such as calligraphy based languages like sanscrit or mandarin.
This argument is just maddening to me! I love cursive, and remember learning it in second grade. It was a favorite. My daughters love to write in cursive, and being a calligrapher - I am eager to teach them. The same people that think or want it to be gone, are the same types who would be quite happy having no art or music in the schools either.
And long ago, cursive was taught before print was. Just look in an old book at the signatures and inscriptions on the inner covers - the writing is stunningly beautiful - even that of the males, who tend to have wretched handwriting generally.
As for print - most of it is horribly ugly and illegible. I never use it, since cursive is faster and more expressive and pleasurable to do.
dude that one girl hates cursive. lol. does she hate jews and blacks too? wow. U NEED CURSIVE. SOMETIMES U NEED TO SPEED WRITE SOMETHING.
Are you not aware of the irony of defending cursive handwriting via Twitter and e-mail?
I teach in an elementary school in Northern VA. I loved teaching cursive, but your teacher of the year is correct. No child left behind and testing pressures leave little time for teaching cursive. Also, I find younger teachers are v. uncomfortable teaching cursive because they don't use it themselves. Cursive handwriting is valuable, but the community must decide what is most important for the students.
I teach in an elementary school in Northern VA. I loved teaching cursive, but your teacher of the year is correct. No child left behind and testing pressures leave little time for teaching cursive. Also, I find younger teachers are v. uncomfortable teaching cursive because they don't use it themselves. Cursive handwriting is valuable, but the community must decide what is most important for the students.
So please explain what happens to a persons signature? How does aperson sign a legal document or a check?
There are so many areas in our lives where being able to clearly write, to communicate ones thoughts,weather cursive or printing, is estental. Hand writing MUST be readable and understandable.
A real example I see on a daily basis work ing in a Doctor's office. Each patient must fill out a patient information form. Even the printing is so badly executed that we often can not even send claims to insurances because of unreadable or missing information. We find people are not even fluent in printing let alone cursive. If Cursive writing is phased out, then we need to continue to teach clear printing. No matter how important the digital version might be, there are still areas that one needs to be able to communicate in the written word.
I think that it's important that kids be taught to read cursive, but I don't understand the need to write cursive.
The worst grades I ever received in school were for my inability to write legibly in cursive. In college I abandoned cursive for printing in all-caps and I haven't written in cursive in the thirty years since.
It's an antiquated skill along with making buggy whips and trimming the wick on on oil lamp.
Cursive...isn't that what a student becomes when the laptop crashes?
There is plenty to celebrate about our abilities to write efficiently and effectively using technology. However, our household is a perfect example of why handwriting is still and extremely important skill. My husband never learned to write in cursive, and he can barely print. He can't read his own handwriting and had to pay an extra fee to be able to submit an electronic essay for the bar, because he realized that if he wrote by hand he would fail, simply because his print is illegible. He is only able to draft in a word processor.
On the other hand, I can hand write thank you notes for job interviews, within my capacity at work, and I am able to write legible grocery lists, notes in classes, and on other occasions when legible cursive (or print) are important. Moreover, I have multiple options available when writing. I just finished defended my thesis, with honors, and I composed it by hand and via computer.
I am of the opinion that both handwritten and keyboarding skills are equally important.
I'm a professional linguist with a company that offers translation into all languages. The act of deliberately writing in cursive causes the brain to focus more intensively than printing does and strengthens the brain's language capacity. I think foregoing this for keyboarding is a real mistake. Why does it have to be either/or?
Handwriting is not an isolated skill. It goes hand in glove with learning spelling, reading and pronunciation. Handwriting is the kinesthetic reinforcement for spelling accuracy. It also helps us slow down our thinking and contemplate what the message is we are trying to communicate, especially as a new writer of composition.
Gloria Goldsmith
The AVKO Foundation
My wife and I have discussed this and have concluded that cursive writing will be an elitist way of being or only for the elite. Any thoughts on the social impact with regard to the decline of cursive writing?
Vy
Cursive is the human font.
Part of the problem is the type of cursive being taught. Denillian cursive has totally different letter forms than print. Cursive italic is used in Oregon and Washington. You learn the letter forms ONCE. When you hit 3rd grade you learn to join the print letter forms. MUCH easier and kids "revert" far less.
Your discussion is too Ameri-centric. If someone wants to apply for a job in another country, they may have to fill out an application or write a cover letter by hand as a requirement. Many people in other countries view Americans' inability to read and write cursive as childish. Not knowing cursive may cost your children that dream job in Paris!
I am disheartened that your supposedly highly-educated guests have both miss-used the word "less." It is not correct to say, "Less students are now printing their letters." Fewer students are doing so.
Isn't this the greater loss--not the way words are made, but rather, how carelessly they are chosen?
NO Child left Behind and additions to curriculum have squeezed time for teaching cursive. As an elementary teacher I have enjoyed teaching cursive, but I find younger teachers do not because they don't use cursive themselves. I believe learning cursive is valuable, but ultimately the community must decide what it values.
NO Child left Behind and additions to curriculum have squeezed time for teaching cursive. As an elementary teacher I have enjoyed teaching cursive, but I find younger teachers do not because they don't use cursive themselves. I believe learning cursive is valuable, but ultimately the community must decide what it values.
This rides hand in hand with the earlier story about the uneven distribution of wealth - perhaps even is the root cause of the uneven distribution of wealth.
CHildren used to look forward to the day they could learn to read cursive writing to be able to read those notes the grown-ups wrote to each other that we could not read.
Just one more example of how the education system is failing our future - our children.
Also takes the individuality away from each student - can't know if a signature is falsified when there is no means to compare writing examples.
This will make fraud much, much easier for the future criminals.