Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Cursive, I'm old school

My daughter-in-law just got her first teaching job.  I am thrilled for her.  It has taken a couple of years to feel confident to take this step so I am really proud of her.  She will be teaching 4th grade writing, grammar and spelling.  She could probably teach me a couple of things.

One thing she won't be teaching is cursive.  She doesn't believe in it.  Her school has many language problems with migrant children and other non-native English speakers, they don't have time.  Cursive seems like a luxury.  I hate that.

Don't get me wrong.  I didn't like penmanship.  I was okay at it but I hated being graded whether my h's went all the way up or my t's were just below.  It all seemed pretty trivial.  However, since I was born in the dark ages, before computers.  We had to write all or our papers and they all had to be cursive.  We all got pretty decent at it; well, most of us.  Even today when I go to a meeting, jot something down, write a grocery list, or certainly write a card, it is in cursive.

I always felt that when I wrote my notes in class I remembered them clearly.  I could almost visualize them on the page.  Do you do that if you don't look at the keys as you are typing?  I don't know.  Studies show that college students that hand wrote their notes vs. typing retained the information more.  You could print your notes and that would still work.  However, cursive is faster.  Most people create a sort of personal hybrid of the two.  That is also because most people that are now adults did have cursive.  What if you never did?  

I forget that maybe my niece and nephews can't read that.  They will have to hand the card to Mom or Dad and have them read it.  Should I stop or just keep doing that and then they will at least learn to read it.  

I have a cookbook of handwritten recipe cards by my Nana.  I treasure that. I treasure that she took the time to handwrite each card out for me.  I know copying them from her own favorite family recipes.  That took time.  I will have her handwriting there forever.  I immediately know it is her writing, just as I know my Mom's or my Dad's.  I know my husbands.  It makes it special because it is unique to them.  I suppose their printing would be as well....but maybe not.  

So yes, I am old school.  I think we should teach our children cursive.  I don't want knuckles rapped with rulers or grades attached to formation. It just seems so sad to lose it