An old picture, on the back a description written in cursive-Kids can't read it

a reply to: seasonal

Hey seasonal!

I just found out recently that our schools have stopped teaching cursive. I am appalled!

I took my friend and her grandson to the bank, she was opening an account for him (he's 14).
He could not sign the forms. Couldn't write his own signature.
The bank teller told him to scribble his name altogether instead of printing it.

So pretty soon nobody will be able to write their own signature anymore?
I agree with everyone who said they are "dumbing us down". I've worked with high school students who could barely count money and cannot calculate the change without an electronic device.

Sure, let's just make everyone completely dependent on computers, phones, etc.
That will be so great if the grid ever goes down for any length of time.
jacy

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
i shall just leave this here :

i believe its supposed to be english - but cannot be certain

It is French not English! So I would assume it would be more understandable if I understood more of that language than a few words that I recognized as being French.

a reply to: seasonal

My kids learned how to write.

a reply to: seasonal

One of Mao Zedong's reforms was to "modernize" the written Chinese language. The intent was to make it impossible for the average Chinese to read their philosophical classics.

a reply to: Caver78

I agree with teaching at home, and I can't imagine it would be very difficult or take very long.

But why did you make me Google "Grand Squirts?!"

a reply to: dogstar23

i too have made the mistake of googling " grand squirts "

and i am not an expert - but i has reservations that anything on the first 3 pages of google results should be taught to school children

originally posted by: dantanna
i hate cursive. after 8th grade only a few teachers required me to write in it, so i never used it. by college i completely abandoned it.

I never noticed that I have abandoned it too. Kind of obsolete really. Much like calligraphy. It's attractive writing but not necessary.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: ignorant_ape

How did the teachers manage 3 short years ago?

You can say that three years after ANY curriculum is dropped.

When I was in school, we had a driver's education course that just about everyone took. A few years after I graduated high school, my school dropped driver's ed out of the curriculum for reasons associated to time and expense, and to re-allocated that time and expense to other parts of the curriculum, mainly to the sciences and maths. That is, if they wanted to teach more science and math (and they do), something else had to give.

So applying your question here three years after Driver's education was dropped:
"How did the teachers manage 3 short years ago?"

Heck -- every student was required to attend a general music class when I was in middle school (not "band" or learning to play an instrument, but a class in which we learned about music in general). However, that general music class for all students has since been dropped to allow for more science and maths.

Again, three years after dropping music to make room for other subjects, your question would be:
"How did the teachers manage 3 short years ago?"

These curriculums are being dropped by school administrators (rightly or wrongly) in order to have time and resources available for teaching what they think (again, right or wrong) are more important parts of the curriculum for giving kids the tools to succeed.

School administrators didn't eliminate cursive, driver's education, and general music class to intentionally keep people in the dark and ignorant in order to result in a generation of humans who can be more easily controlled by the big nasty "TPTB".

originally posted by: seasonal
My step father passed, and we had a number of old pictures that we went through and I got take a few home. And by old I mean1920's.

Long story short, there is a long description of who they are and if they had kids. It was written in cursive. My 11 year old picked up one of the large pictures, and this is mounted in an embossed paper holder. On the back is the cursive writing, and the 11 year old has no idea what it says.

Now I never thought much of this being left out of the curriculum. But the more I think about it, the over $10,000 a year that the state of Michigan (tax payer) puts into the education of these kids, maybe they could still teach this.
Cursive is still out there our family's old documents are written in it, our nations founding docs are in it. Is there a good reason that I am not seeing to stop teaching it? Is it truly a dead skill or a skill that some wish was dead?

Couldn't agree more Seasonal. It's a sad day. Honestly, I think it partly has to do with laziness. I have a first grade student who, last year, had a great kindergarten teacher and noticeably learned a lot. This year, it's like he has gone backwards and some of the things he isn't learning, the teacher should be doing a much better job of teaching. Sure, us as parents should do more at home, but why is my kid spending 6 hours a day at school for? There are some great teachers out there, hence, his kindergarten teacher last year, but there are way too many lazy ones. Cursive would be too much work for these teachers I speak of.

They still teach cursive here in about 3rd grade or so, but are then told they are not allowed to use it in school.

Their reasoning? Kid's handwriting is too difficult for the teachers to read when grading assignments.

My youngest has brought home assignments in which the answers to questions have to be shortened enough that it could be posted on Twitter. This is what schools are going to now, at least here in our system curricula.

I remember when you got *better* marks for the more detailed and explanatory your answers were. Now it's 142 characters or less!!

Youngest kiddos' last foods block was learning to read directions on boxed foods and following them. I just remember feeling my eye start to twitch. This is what our tax dollars are going toward.

Most of my elementary was involved in cursive penmanship. The use of multi-scored paper to properly write ascenders and decsenders... The study of near-perfect curvature... I remember it all well. It has definitely helped me in my life... however there are some people who write cursive with no technique, and are almost impossible for many to read their chicken scratch.

originally posted by: seasonal
My step father passed, and we had a number of old pictures that we went through and I got take a few home. And by old I mean1920's.

Long story short, there is a long description of who they are and if they had kids. It was written in cursive. My 11 year old picked up one of the large pictures, and this is mounted in an embossed paper holder. On the back is the cursive writing, and the 11 year old has no idea what it says.

Now I never thought much of this being left out of the curriculum. But the more I think about it, the over $10,000 a year that the state of Michigan (tax payer) puts into the education of these kids, maybe they could still teach this.
Cursive is still out there our family's old documents are written in it, our nations founding docs are in it. Is there a good reason that I am not seeing to stop teaching it? Is it truly a dead skill or a skill that some wish was dead?

The only reason kids these days are starting to not write as well and read as well writing of this kind is only due to the world becoming more accessible. Most schools would rather a child write something in an electronic document that can be saved with a click of a button then have a document written that needs storing space. So seeing cursive writing is obviously becoming less apparent. If they do not do something repetitively then it will be lost.

Jacy, come on girl, that's not much of an argument purely because they made him scribble his name to create a signature for paperwork. It's an argument for teaching your kids some very specific way or another to scrawl their name for documents and legal matters (and I strongly emphasize making it difficult to duplicate, it's your written fingerprint now) Not an argument for the writing system itself.

Mine went from a proper cursive signature to a cursive-ish chicken scratch scribble. I prefer the s# out of my chicken scratch, actually. It's very, very difficult to mimic/copy, much more secure against being forged, whereas my "proper cursive" is very easy to copy (as I've mentioned, it's a dirty hybrid of print & cursive, so the purists won't count it either way)

This is an issue with my own mother's, who's simply had me sign her stuff in her signature style when she's too lazy to do it a few times in the past -- "Fill out this bill's check and mail it for me, Nyiah". Mkay. I'm not even trying here, your cursive is very basic, legibly consistent, and uniform and...your signature is ENTIRELY TOO EASY to do, invent a new one! A proper signature is useless when it can be copied (aka forged) that easily, so much for identity security & verification uses.

I'll stick with my bastard child cursive-print combo chicken scratch, kthanx.

a reply to: seasonal

I am truly saddened by the fact that public schools do not teach cursive anymore. I hope to find the time to teach it to my child.

It is not a needed form of communications now I guess, as the years go by, certain communications get dropped.

Keyboarding has taken the place of typewriters and Im sure there is something more relevant to take the place of cursive.

It is so beautiful and I am so sad that it is dying out

a reply to: jacygirl

Yes, just wait till a big solar flare hits us, major grids go out and most of the younger population is dumbfounded..and helpless.

a reply to: vonclod

Cursive writing skills will be the last of our worries.

a reply to: grainofsand

My comment was to jacygirl regarding the general dumbing down and reliance on electronic devises.

originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: grainofsand

My comment was to jacygirl regarding the general dumbing down and reliance on electronic devises.

We'll still have bigger fish to fry in that event, electronic entertainment won't even be second fiddle to reworking basic necessities to manual systems (regardless of who you present the comment to)

It strikes me that this is just another way of disadvantaging poorer kids.
You can bet your behind that cursive writing will be taught in fee paying schools. When these kids grow up and are unable to hand write a letter in cursive script, they will be instantly identified as "lesser" than someone who can do so.


I just took it for granted and figured learning to write meant learning to write in cursive script when II was a kid. I don't remember school making any distinction really, everyone just did it.