Cursive writing is dying

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Avatar for zolabundance2
2 years ago

A check (with Google, of course) told me that cursive writing is usually taught in third grade, or around the ages of 7 or 8. It is said that by this age, a child should have the motor skills necessary to control the hand as it learns to write differently.

When we first learn to write, it is in print. Block letters, that is. Children, as young as 3 or 4 years old, are encouraged to learn to write once they're able to hold a pencil properly, or with enough grip so it doesn't slip. And the first lesson is to print letters.

While the alphabet, usually taught through song, or a picture book featuring words to associate with a photo of an object, is part of a toddler's early education, it is a child's name that parents first teach when it comes to writing.

This, however, shouldn't be forced on young children. Let them enjoy using crayons if they like running these back and forth on paper or coloring books. When they're comfortable holding crayons or pencils, that would be the signal that they're ready to learn to write.

Writing requires interest and discipline, plus the use of certain muscles. When a child is ready to write, they'll pick up a pencil or whatever writing implement on their own and do it.

Should they know how to write when they attend play school or Kindergarten class? Not necessarily, and it's disturbing how many parents seem to want their kids to be so advanced once they set foot in school.

It takes a lot of effort to write in print. It can be exhausting for small hands. But it is a huge thing to be able to write their name, and an even bigger achievement when they write the whole alphabet in beautiful, block letters.

If there are penmanship genes, I've been blessed to have gotten the good ones. I'm not quite sure how good my parents' handwritings were when they were younger. And I'm mostly familiar with their script than print writing. They're legible, not quite old school and can sometimes look like a scrawl. But it doesn't need hard deciphering.

Did I learn cursive writing in the third grade? Am not sure because that means I was in Singapore at that time. I'm more inclined to think I was taught this in the Catholic school on my second grade. And I don't remember if it was a nun who trained us. If it was, then no wonder I wrote well. Hahaha!

I wrote with care, and liked imitating the nice handwriting we're supposed to copy, so that's probably one reason why my script was really neat and actually beautiful.

Why do we need to learn cursive? It's a more efficient way of writing, especially when listening and note-taking at the same time. Apparently, it is a tool for learning. Since it requires motor and perceptual skills, this is why it helps in retaining information better.

The former I can validate. In my work as a journalist, even with recorders, it's more helpful to take down notes with a pen because truthfully, the brain absorbs details better when I do. While my handwriting isn't always tidy and fully legible to others (it was to me and that's what was important), when I go through the notes, what I heard as I jotted things done all comes back to me.

It's like the hand movement when writing also imprints data to the brain so it sticks more. Although I did develop the skill to really listen and absorb when conducting interviews so much so that I can replay it almost verbatim right after. But the note-taking really does help, and cursive just allows me to write even faster.

Today, however, cursive isn't even being taught in schools. Or if it is, it's not being required to use it. So kids either write in print, or worse don't write at all and instead type on their phones or laptops.

And the art of cursive or longhand writing is all but dead.

So why aren't kids being taught cursive any more? Because it's not something easily learned, unlike tapping on a keyboard. Computer lessons took the place of writing lessons. Teachers, too, no longer have the patience to teach kids, who mostly have short attention spans, and can be irritable when asked to do something repetitive that required effort.

It was enough they knew how to write in block letters so it wasn't necessary to know or be good at longhand writing to graduate from grade school.

I admit I mostly write in print now, especially when I sit down and have time whether to create an article, or jot down notes. But... I still revert to cursive when it's something that needs to be written down fast, or I'm listening to someone talking fast and have no time to record.

And yes, I can still put out neat and legible cursive writing. But boy, does it hurt my hand a lot when I do it for a long time!

So people, who still writes in cursive and who's abandoned it?

Images are original

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2 years ago

Comments

Wowooo... beautiful article 👍 is good teaching us here, keep it up

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2 years ago

I am inlove with cursive writing! I want to pass the love to the kids. But since they do not see me writing in cursive anymore, they have nothing to immitate. So one time, I copied down a book, the first few pages, just so they see me writing. But I write slowly and messy. But I love doing it all over again until I see no erasure.

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2 years ago

Prang bata pa din magsulat! Tama sabay kayo ng mga kids... hahaha. But seriously, just keep writing as practice so your hand gets used to it and you'll end up making little to no mistakes. It takes a lot of effort, but like everything, eventually it becomes muscle memory.

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2 years ago

Haha, there's a problem inside of me so until now, I write worse than kids. But at least very readable. Yun lang ay kalat talaga. Hehehe. Kailangan very slowly para beautiful.

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2 years ago

I congratulate you for your good handwriting. I as a doctor have my handwriting terribly bad. lol.

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2 years ago

Hahaha! Why is that, I wonder that doctors rarely have good penmanship. I read somewhere a doctor with good handwriting disclosing that most of his peers write badly because they're not sure how to spell generic names of meds, is there truth to that?

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2 years ago

This is not true. We write badly because we spend our lives running. We write everything that happens to patients in their stories. All day long writing even if our hands get tired we must keep reporting everything on paper. Our handwriting gets worse over time.

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2 years ago

Doctor welcome... nice meeting you here

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2 years ago

Thanks

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2 years ago

Yes. Cursive writing is dying and I am so angry about it! Even though my kids are out of school, I have grandchildren. It is the stupidest thing NOT to teach cursive writing. Uhh ... hello! How are the kids going to learn how to sign their names? Do the teachers realize how important a signature is??!!!

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2 years ago

You know, I never thought of that - signature. That's right! So you just go teach your grandkids cursive. It's not going to be easy, but if you get it done, boy will it be an achievement for you. Thank you for the visit.

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2 years ago

I love cursive writing :) I really do. I am good at it. But with a very slow pacing. 😅

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2 years ago

Cursive is my preferred handwriting honestly. But I mostly use engineering handwriting the past few years since it is required. I like crusive better though since I can write faster, and I guess I really like how it looks

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2 years ago

That's the advantage of cursive writing, the convenience when you have to write faster.

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2 years ago

My youngest son is in grade 4 now, when they were still in private school they have a book where they needed to practice cursive writing, then last year we move to a public school, he was in grade 3 that time, their teacher encouraged them to write in cursive too because teachers in grade 4 would be very strict with cursive writing, but since the students weren’t focus on cursive writing because of online set up, most my son’s classmate including him are having a hard time writing in cursive

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2 years ago

Maybe you can get him to practice even just for 30 minutes a day so he doesn't forget. That way he will still get used to writing in longhand by the time he goes back to face-to-face classes.

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2 years ago

I will, maybe I’ll start it next week. He was complaining to me that it’s hard, but I think we’ll do it little by little until he got used to it.

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2 years ago

Yeah, 10 to 15 minutes maybe. Perhaps get him to write a poem or fable. Something a little more interesting so he'll be encouraged to do it.

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2 years ago

Thank you for some tips, I will try to encourage him :)

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2 years ago

I can remember how they thought me to write, they would use a small stick to whip your hands when you make a mistake, I was forced to write like a 16 year old when I was 4 lol

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2 years ago

Yes, the small stick or wooden ruler was teacher's weapon to teach in writing cursive. I wasn't afraid of it because I was careful and really didn't want that touching my hand.

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2 years ago