I Just Learned That They Don't Teach Cursive Writing In Schools These Days.....

[tblue37]

230. Many years ago this issue was trending in the national media.

Since I had posted an article called "Do You Remember Penmanship?" on my Teacher, Teacher website, I was interviewed by at least a dozen large-circulation newspapers from across the country, and the CBS Evening News sent their 48 Hours anchorman, Richard Schlesinger, out with a camera crew to interview me and tape a bit of my "Introduction to Poetry" class, including brief images of students' chicken scratch note-taking.

I chose an articulate, videogenic student with illegible handwriting for them to interview, too. He did a great job on camera.

My article:
http://www.teacherblue.homestead.com/penmanship.html

The CBS Evening News video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-vanishing-art-of-handwriting/

BTW, they need to learn cursive, not just printing. Many of my students cannot read cursive! Since many of their instructors write comments on their papers in cursive, as well as notes on the board, students who can't read cursive are at a disadvantage. I want you to wrap your minds around that astonishing fact: many college students cannot read cursive writing!

Here is a brief excerpt from my article:

I believe that students should be taught penmanship in elementary school, and that they should be required to develop a legible hand. They won't always be able to use a computer to do their work. In-class essays and exams are required at every level of education, and students who cannot write--in the sense of not being able to put words down legibly on paper with a pen or pencil--are at a distinct disadvantage. It is also true that lack of practice in handwriting means that the student may not be able to write quickly enough to take adequate notes in class or to complete an in-class assignment within a strict time limit.

When I was in grade school, teachers did not have Xerox copiers to run off assignment sheets and tests. We usually had to copy our assignments or test questions from the board. On those occasions now when I have a group of college students copy a few items from the board, it takes them forever. They are such incredibly slow writers! They copy from the board far less efficiently than second- and third-graders did when I was a child.