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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My 7th grade son has been getting keyboarding and 'computer' classes since 3rd grade, if not earlier. However, what he's never gotten is a typing class. So although he's proficient on the computer, he does the 2-finger hunt-and-peck typing method. It makes no sense to me that we push computer skills from an early age but neglect something as fundamental as typing skills. How has this been missed?
As the family genealogist, I love seeing the changes in handwriting of a single family member over time. It is kind of a "log" of what was happening to them over time. And I now see me mother in my own handwriting as I age..kind of eerie but endearing.
The gentleman on this show opened a sentence with the following - "There's two schools of thought ... ".
On a program dealing with what is appropriate for the education of third and fourth graders purporting to have guests whose expertise merits their comments on the subject is it not revealing to hear the (mis)use of grammar so deficient as to be embarrassing to the listener.
Say his words aloud and imagine what a classroom of third graders are thinking at the time.
"There is two schools of thought...."
No one corrected him.
Is radio courtesy now at the stage where insisting on proper grammar is considered rude, even on a program dealing with education?
Or was it that no one even noticed?
Disgraceful.
In second grade I had all As all year. In third grade I had all As all year. No wait. I didn't because that was the year they forced us to "learn" cursive and I got Cs every marking period in this ridiculously arcane ridiculously regimented subject. My problem? Based on my academic record before and since, it clearly had nothing to do with intelligence. Rather, I happen to be left-handed and the regimentation required (at least then) clearly was based on what was "perfect" handwriting as produced by someone who was right-handed. So I strongly disagree with anyone who argues that cursive is somehow essential for an educated person. Get real! How often does anyone REALLY use cursive for anything essential? Since I got to the point in school where I could type, I've NEVER used cursive for ANYTHING! I print anything I can't do on a computer and I take notes by hand just as quickly as anyone using cursive could. So what's the point? Now, if we want to teach calligraphy as an elective, I can see that. But to force everyone to write in the same regimented patterns is not at all essential but can easily result in a sense of failure for left-handers (and others) who have difficulty producing the perfect patterns required by cursive.
This type of loss of Cursive has occurred before. In my literature class in Junior Collage. Was a part of Mark Twain diatribe on the introduction of the Type Writer. He was furious about what would happen to hand writing when the Type Writer took hold.
Google Books most likely will have all of Twain's writing.
The above is all from memory back in 1969.
Please read it. An other of his great works is his writing about the house fly.
Enjoy
Paul
I forgot this. In Architecture Collage we had a History Teacher the asked every on in class to quit printing and us cursive. Because the Teacher could not read the answers or themes.
In the last few minutes of the show did I hear correctly that one of the panelists was actually advocating to "change" (re: relax) the definition of plagiarism?! I am absolutely appalled by this.
It sounded to me that is what see is advocating.
my apologies - duplicate entry
fcattorney asked:
"Which signature did you use when you got a Mortgage or when you sign a deed to transfer property? Which signature would you put on your last will and testament?"
I have used my printed signature on every legal document since 1982, including deeds and wills.
No nuns since I went to public school, but pretty much every grade school teacher berated me for my cursive.
jenomalley wrote:
"Steve Jobs, the person who has revolutionized our relationship with digital devices and expanded public appreciation for design, attributes his inspiration to a calligraphy class he took at Reed College. He learned about serif and san serif typefaces, the space between letter combinations and was fascinated by it. 10 years later he designed the first Mac, proudly stating that "It was the first computer with beautiful typography"
There's a big difference between calligraphy and writing in cursive. My cursive is illegible, but I can do beautiful calligraphy. I've also worked as a sign painter, and as a graphic designer.
Listening to the show now. My 6 year old is starting cursive and she loves it. I strongly support the inclusion of it in school. we will not always have electronic communication, we need it for signing contracts (mortgages, many financial accounts, etc.) that do not accept digital signatures, and a person will need to read others writing in that script.
I think we should be careful about parting with body-based skills like cursive writing. Handwriting, playing the piano or any musical instrument, drawing, learning languages, etc., are all critical ways of integrating the mind and the body that we have collectively developed over millennia. Sure, we can engage in all kinds of abstract symbol manipulation with a keyboard, but these don't engage the parts of the mind that are woven into the body in deep ways by these other kinds of physical activities.
Those other parts of the brain are important - you only need to look at the musical awareness and ability left in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia to know that the mind is larger than our ability to reason abstractly.
Drawing Children Into Reading is a program started in Michigan that addresses fine motor skills in a new and exciting way that teachers and students love. Over 5ooo students in the midwest are experiencing the project in just 4 years. When we teach young children (4 - 6) to draw bugs, ballerinas and bulldozers then they will be able to DRAW the alphabet Visit: drawingchildrenintoreading.com to learn more.
Though I believe cursive can have a use in modern life, I don't think it's a practical skill any more. Even for quick notes, increasing numbers of people are using netbooks, tablets, and smart phones. The fact is that cursive just isn't important enough to require class time. If parents still want their children to learn, they can teach it themselves. In the meantime, more class time should be spent ensuring children are technologically literate.
"The best help for improving handwriting and memorizing spellings is to teach dyslexic children cursive handwriting" according to dyslexia-parent.com. Of course they also advocate for keyboarding. Computers are a great asset but you can't be plugged in all of the time, and where I come from a large portion of our school families don't have computers. There is no way a public library can keep up with demand! I am a high school special ed teacher helping severely learning disabled students finally learn to read. I teach phonics to 14-16 year olds. My lessons include cursive (which most were only briefly exposed to in middle school) as a way to avoid confusion with letters like b, d, and p, and to improve fluent spelling/reading because when letters are connected, students can begin to see connections rather than single letters chained together. This was part of my training in the Wilson Reading System. I was amazed at the results - it especially helped students master words that can't be sounded out (irregular words that don't follow language rules) and the improvement in self-esteem was astonishing. Most ended up using a hybrid of print and cursive; maybe this is a good case for the italic font the guest spoke of. My father had dyslexia, and the most beautiful signature I've ever seen. It just took him years of practice. If you don't practice, you'll never improve! I heard no compelling arguments for taking cursive out of schools. One more thing - changing the definition of plagiarism is nuts. Taking someone else's words is theft. This is not a loosey- goosey concept!
CARNIVAL RATTLE
How can a culture (and so called educators), committed to upholding literacy, even consider the notion of dropping cursive?
Are you really suggesting that we condemn our next generation to a future where someone else has to read/interpret the Declaration of Independence FOR THEM...because THEY CAN'T READ IT FOR THEMSELVES?
Signatures? Ability to conduct business face to face and sign with ones bond? Ability to read anything other than print, current and past?
WHAT? Deplorable.
Here and now, at a time when our nation needs to examine its work ethic, this is your answer? I am very disturbed that anyone would waste our time to divert attention to such a subject. At best it is uninsightful and pathetic at worst, a devisive prank on the public.
The notion of tearing down literacy sickens me to the heart.
To those of authorship I suggest you put your hand to the plow, and produce something other than devisive carnival rattle in an attempt to sell worthless hot air.
Our youth needs education, not sloth.
Wake up. Grow up.
It was amusing to hear those who are resistant to change defend cursive.
Whatever happened to substance? Content should be what matters, after that legibility, the idea that people can only write well in cursive is just laughable. Cursive is an archaic skill, people have been abandoning it long before the advent of wide spread computing. There will always be those who cling to the past or are contrary for its own sake, but the fact is hand writing is slow, and children grow up on keyboards these days. If the apocalypse happens, I'm sure we will get by on regular printing, and folks can learn cursive again while civilization is rebuilt.
The claim that only cursive is personalized is also totally false, everyone's handwriting is different by default. Anyways these things are superficial, and if that is really the best defense one can muster, then one should reconsider.
Some old people will alway worry about the young, but as the other commentator mentioned, the fact is that the written word is far more involved in the lives of children than ever before in history. There were no good old days, these days children spend their lives on the internet, a text based medium, from video games to web chat to discussion forums and the rest, it is all text based, most of their communications and information/entertainment is received through text. So worrying about handwriting at this point just seems to be missing the point, there is no problem.
Not really necessary, you can get typing tutorials online or in cheap games. Simply learning the default position and going from there is all one needs, and then a little discipline not to go back to hunt and peck, at that age all you need to do is have a little guidance, an entire class spent on this is a waste of resources, like worrying that children won't know how to learn to play video games, they will learn that stuff when they want to. Not being able to chat with their friends easily online or in game should be motivation enough for most people.
Abandoning manual handwriting is fine as long as you have electricity and battery life. It is easy to see there will be situations in which the ability to record language on a piece of paper is still useful.
In the lifeboat filled with keyboarding, texting kids who keeps the survivors' log?
Day 10 OMG So Hngry. Bob no BRB. We 8 Bob. Nuf fud for 2moro 2 but BOB not nuf fud 4 5 ppl 4 long
ttyl b4n
Sorry to say but some of the discussion was quite a potent argument against academic tenure.
How about sitting down first and answering a few basic questions. Like:
a/ American educators keep coming up with fantastic new ideas every few years. Other educational systems don't - or do it on a few decades timescale. Students raised in those other systems keep beating up American students - more and more so - in objective, controlled (i.e. almost scientific) comparisons. How come? - If you think there is no connection, please think again.
b/ (Because...) Real effects of an educational system can only be seen on a 20-30 years timescale. If you think otherwise, please think again.
c/ (Corollary.) Even a mediocre educational system which is somewhat stable (read: changes on a timescale of decades, not on every half-baked, untested idea) serves the students better than one which changes all the time (even if the ideas were excellent, which they are not.)
d/ (Because a myth has to be dispelled.) If you are trying to prepare students for "today's world" you either already lost the battle or you are doing harm to them. Because what you should do is to prepare them for the world in 15-20 years from now. If you know how it will look like, please tell me. If you don't (and I'm pretty sure you don't), please re-think, what's the next best thing you can do.
Hello all,
I'm writing from Hungary. Having had spent almost 8yrs in the States, I was shocked to see that hardly any one could write cursive. Even the ones who know how to, they prefer not to use it. Also, most people I've met mix capitals and small letters constantly. Inside of a word they are mixing them, as if they were making a pattern.
I'm wondering why this is such a difficult task? Even nowadays, writing is a must all over the world. It's not difficult, it actually is fun. Once someone masters it.
In Hungary, and in many other European countries (if not in all???), children start to learn to write using cursive. This way, they are done with the difficulties by 2nd/3rd grade. And then they can pick up keyboard, since that is necessary as well.
Let's start with the "difficult" task first.
A lot of people make a lot of noise about the death of cursive. Handwriting matters ... But does cursive matter?
Research shows that the fastest and most legible handwriters avoid cursive. They join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. (Citation: Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, and Naomi Weintraub. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HANDWRITING STYLE AND SPEED AND LEGIBILITY. 2001: on-line at http://www.sbac.edu/~werned/DATA/Brain%20research%20class/handwriting%20... )
What about _reading_ cursive? This matters vitally — and can be taught in 30 minutes to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.
Of course, there are people asserting that cursive "helps brain development." In fact, the research on handwriting and brain development hasn't found that these benefits are somehow limited to any one type of handwriting.
What about signatures? Questioned document examiners (these are specialists in the identification of signatures, then verification of documents, etc.) inform me that the least forgeable signatures are the plainest. Most cursive signatures are loose scrawls: the rest, if they follow the rules of cursive all, are fairly complicated: these make a forger's life easy.
Consider, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don't take my word for this: ask any attorney.)
Kate Gladstone — CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
Director, the World Handwriting Contest
Co-Designer, BETTER LETTERS handwriting trainer app for iPhone/iPad
http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com
What's "granma mathe"?
What's "granma mathe"?
My comment (the one that appeared twice, for an unknown reason) queried the commenter "Semi-Anonymous" re his/her complaint (on July 28, 2011) about "lax rules of granma mathe, as latin, cursive, and education" ... I'm still curious, as "granma mathe" wasn't taught at my school.