[Reader-list] Cursive being phased out of U.S. schools

[Tara Prakash]

Motor skills, or lack thereof, is one thing, as a blind person I am one of 
the living testaments of liberating properties of the keyboard. Hand writing 
is not accessible to the blind, neither as a reader nor as a writer. If you 
give a blind person a computer print out, he/she can read it by scanning it 
and saving on the computer hard drive. But there is no ocr engine that 
recognizes hand writing till now. Still hand writing cannot be wished away 
in country like ours where computers are beyond reach of the majority of the 
population. So we'll have to live with it, and so we will live with it.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ujwala Samarth" <ujwala at openspaceindia.org>
To: "geeta seshu" <geetaseshu at gmail.com>; "Chintan Girish Modi" 
<chintan.backups at gmail.com>
Cc: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Cursive being phased out of U.S. schools


> No cursive writing, or no handwriting at all? I don't quite get that 
> answer
> from the article.
>
> While I firmly believe that handwriting is a skill (and an important
> brain/motor coordination exercise) that is important enough to be 
> continued
> in primary schools, I personally wouldn't mind if cursive writing itself 
> was
> offered as an art form to those who felt so inclined and not insisted upon
> as a requirement. Being able to print clearly and regularly is more than
> enough as a form of handwriting isn't it?
>
> Far too many of us have miserable memories of not being able to form those
> damn cursive loops and what-not easily, and of being castigated as dunces
> for the same. It didn't really matter WHAT we wrote -- what mattered was 
> the
> CURSIVE. While things may have changed now to some extent -- and they have
> -- I suspect that the tyranny of cursive handwriting continues -- the 
> child
> with the 'beautiful' pages, no matter that she has written a page full of
> unoriginal drivel, will always receive more praise/validity/recognition 
> than
> the child with the untidy handwriting and interesting ideas. In a country
> where good cursive writing (like the parrot-like reciting of tables) is an
> immediate mark of a 'bright' student, where children are often taught to
> write cursive before they enter first grade, one has to question this
> obsession with handwriting.
>
> As a teacher with very bad handwriting (and memories of tearful 
> handwriting
> classes)  who has formed my own legible semi-print/cursive writing style, 
> I
> feel completely liberated by the keyboard. And so do many students who
> simply don't have the motor skills that others have -- finally, their
> teachers may actually READ what they have to say.
>
> I do feel handwriting is a skill to be learned -- like skipping rope and
> riding a bicycle -- and I do appreciate a beautiful flowing handwriting 
> the
> way I appreciate a fine painting or a piece of embroidery. Let's just
> remember what writing is all about in its essence -- communication.
>
> Ujwala
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 12:20 PM, geeta seshu <geetaseshu at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
>
>> very interesting chintan...thanks for the post.
>>
>> apart from all the implications of right/left brain development, cultural
>> issues and whatnot, I was trying to recall when - and what - I last wrote
>> by
>> hand...
>>
>> but to give up on teaching a skill completely?
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 8:53 PM, Chintan Girish Modi <
>> chintan.backups at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > From
>> >
>> >
>> http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/07/cursive-finally-being-phased-out-of-u-s-schools/
>> > Cursive being phased out of U.S. schoolsJul 7, 2011 – 8:04 PM ET |
>> >
>> > By Laura Baziuk
>> >
>> > Forget the looping Ls and curving Gs.
>> >
>> > Students in Indiana’s public schools will no longer have to learn 
>> > cursive
>> > writing starting this fall.
>> >
>> > The state is one among 48 others transitioning to new state-led 
>> > national
>> > learning guides, the Common Core State Standard Initiatives, which no
>> > longer
>> > require children to learn handwriting. They do, however, have to 
>> > sharpen
>> > their typing skills.
>> >
>> > An Indiana Department of Education memo last spring said teachers can
>> still
>> > choose to teach cursive writing, or can stop altogether.
>> >
>> > “State standards themselves, they’re just supposed to be a guide for 
>> > what
>> > students must know before moving on to the next grade,” said department
>> > spokeswoman Stephanie Sample. “And there are lots of little details 
>> > that
>> > aren’t in those standards that kids learn.”
>> >
>> > Sample said she has not heard any feedback from parents who are 
>> > concerned
>> > their children will no longer learn a basic, yet fading, skill.
>> >
>> > How often does one write in cursive every day? Much of our daily 
>> > personal
>> > and business correspondence is done by a quick e-mail or text message.
>> > Note-taking and composing essays or statements are done almost entirely
>> on
>> > the computer.
>> >
>> > Indiana father Mark Shoup said he wouldn’t be concerned if his 
>> > children,
>> > though now grown, had not learned cursive.
>> >
>> > “There are much more important skills I think they take into this 
>> > century
>> > than whether or not they write cursively,” the former teacher said,
>> listing
>> > critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and literacy.
>> >
>> > “Maybe it’s something we should not give up on, but keep it in
>> perspective
>> > of its relative importance in the scheme of things,” Shoup said. “How
>> long
>> > we really have children in school and what are our real goals for 
>> >  them?”
>> >
>> > Perry Klein, a professor of literacy education at the University of
>> Western
>> > Ontario, said a child’s ability to compose depends on whether she can
>> form
>> > letters clearly and accurately.
>> >
>> > “If students can form letters fluently, then that frees up their
>> attention
>> > to focus on the content and language of what they’re writing,” Klein
>> said.
>> >
>> > Research has yet to be published, he said, on whether forming those
>> letters
>> > works best on a page with a pen or on a computer screen. But as long as
>> > they
>> > can read what they compose, they will develop the right skills.
>> >
>> > “The important thing is that for kids to learn [printing)]and cursive
>> > accurately and fluently, and if they have that, then they’ll be able to
>> do
>> > written composition in a whole variety of situations,” Klein said.
>> >
>> > Marie Picard, a penmanship workbook dealer in London, Ont., said 
>> > cursive
>> > might be fading away, but still exists in letters, envelopes, 
>> > signatures
>> > and
>> > signs.
>> >
>> > “Handwriting shows some sort of style and flair and how you are as a
>> > person,” she said. “I just think that it’s (becoming) a lost art.”
>> >
>> > Sonja Semion, with the Colorado branch of Stand for Children, an
>> education
>> > advocacy organization, said with limited resources in classrooms, it’s
>> time
>> > to focus not on what has always been taught, but what’s best for 
>> > children
>> > for when they become adults.
>> >
>> > “I think schools have to toe a line right now where they have to really
>> > prepare kids for the careers of the future,” she said. “We still need
>> > writing, some kind of penmanship, but I think the keyboard is really 
>> > the
>> > way
>> > it’s going to go. The technology is the future.”
>> >
>> > *Postmedia News*
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Ujwala Samarth
> (Programme Coordinator, Open Space)
>
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