Tuesday 6 November 2012

Cursive Writing

I’m the first to admit I’ve an opinionated person and once my mind is made up it’s not worth you wasting your breath trying to change my mind. At the same time I am always willing to listen to people and hear their side and if I still don’t agree to defend my position.

What I can’t stand is people who are so closed minded they won’t even hear the other side out. Nobody is saying they have to agree with what is being said but at least hear the words.

Tonight on Facebook someone posted a rant bitching about how schools are no longer teaching cursive writing. This person went on to say this move is making kids dumb and how will kids sign their names or read important historical documents and that The U.S Constitution and The Bill of Rights will be un-readable to the next generation.  

I left a comment saying that it’s sad but in a way I get it. They’re replacing cursive writing in the syllabus with things like computer programming and web design which in the long run are more useful to know.

The women deleted my comment so now I get to be a bitch and point out she’s stupid.

Let’s start with “how will they sign their names?” Are you fucking me!? Next to nobody signs their name using real cursive writing. I worked retail per chip and PIN days; people tend to sign with what I can only call at best a squiggle.

“How will they read historic documents?” How do you think they read them now? It’s called the internet or hell, a text book. These things aren’t printed in cursive writing. Most of us can’t read Latin or Hieroglyphic either but that doesn’t make us any more stupid.

The next generation will be learning computer programming as early as grade 1, they’ll be writing programmes in grade 2 and 3. How does that make them a dumber generation? While you were learning how to making curly letters they’re be writing programmes that can do that for them. So which generation is really the dumb one?

Some people hurt my head. I’m not saying I’m right but what I am saying has some real valid points. And nobody gets any smarter by being not hearing other people out. So what do you guys think? Let me know in the comment box below.

And as always stay and play safe.

Love,

The Honest Bitch
xoxoxo

P.S To my readers in the USA Please remember to let your voices be heard and vote. 

6 comments:

  1. This is really wonderfull blog post. I noticed this blog further more useful information. Thanks for sharing your useful views..... Debt Advisors

    ReplyDelete
  2. Handwriting matters ... But does cursive matter?
    Research shows: the fastest and most legible handwriters join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. (Citations appear below.)

    Cursive programs and teachers strongly discourage such practices. Students learning cursive are required to join all letters, and to use different shapes for cursive versus printed letters.

    When following the rules doesn't work as well as breaking them, it’s time to re-write and upgrade the rules. The discontinuance of cursive offers a great opportunity to teach some better-functioning form of handwriting that is actually closer to what the fastest, clearest handwriters do anyway. (There are indeed textbooks and curricula teaching handwriting this way. Cursive and printing are not the only choices.)

    Reading cursive still matters — this takes just 30 to 60 minutes to learn, and can be taught to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.

    (In other words, we could simply teach kids to _read_ old-fashioned handwriting and save the year-and-a-half that are expected to be enough for teaching them to _write_ that way too ... not to mention the actually longer time it takes to teach someone to perform such writing _well_.)

    Remember, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don't take my word for this: talk to any attorney.)



    CITATIONS:

    /1/ Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, and Naomi Weintraub.
    THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HANDWRITING STYLE AND SPEED AND LEGIBILITY.
    1998: on-line at http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27542168.pdf

    and

    /2/ Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, Naomi Weintraub, and William Schafer.
    DEVELOPMENT OF HANDWRITING SPEED AND LEGIBILITY IN GRADES 1-9.
    1998: on-line at http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27542188.pdf

    (NOTE: there are actually handwriting programs that teach this way.
    Shouldn't there be more of them?)




    Yours for better letters,



    Kate Gladstone
    Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
    and the World Handwriting Contest
    http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com


    Sent from my iPad

    ReplyDelete
  3. Handwriting matters ... But does cursive matter?
    Research shows: the fastest and most legible handwriters join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. (Citations appear below.)

    Cursive programs and teachers strongly discourage such practices. Students learning cursive are required to join all letters, and to use different shapes for cursive versus printed letters.

    When following the rules doesn't work as well as breaking them, it’s time to re-write and upgrade the rules. The discontinuance of cursive offers a great opportunity to teach some better-functioning form of handwriting that is actually closer to what the fastest, clearest handwriters do anyway. (There are indeed textbooks and curricula teaching handwriting this way. Cursive and printing are not the only choices.)

    Reading cursive still matters — this takes just 30 to 60 minutes to learn, and can be taught to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.

    (In other words, we could simply teach kids to _read_ old-fashioned handwriting and save the year-and-a-half that are expected to be enough for teaching them to _write_ that way too ... not to mention the actually longer time it takes to teach someone to perform such writing _well_.)

    Remember, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don't take my word for this: talk to any attorney.)



    CITATIONS:

    /1/ Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, and Naomi Weintraub.
    THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HANDWRITING STYLE AND SPEED AND LEGIBILITY.
    1998: on-line at http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27542168.pdf

    and

    /2/ Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, Naomi Weintraub, and William Schafer.
    DEVELOPMENT OF HANDWRITING SPEED AND LEGIBILITY IN GRADES 1-9.
    1998: on-line at http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27542188.pdf

    (NOTE: there are actually handwriting programs that teach this way.
    Shouldn't there be more of them?)




    Yours for better letters,



    Kate Gladstone
    Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
    and the World Handwriting Contest
    http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com


    Sent from my iPad

    ReplyDelete
  4. You may not be stupid if you can't read Latin. But people damn sure believe you are smart if you can read Latin.

    Learning cursive is good too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. While learning something can always be beneficial, the argument truly is: does cursive belong in the school curriculum? The answer is clearly: we have better, more useful things to teach than cursive writing. Typing should have more importance over cursive!

    And while it's great to know Latin, what's the point if you have no use for it? Public school should be used for the greater public. Math, simple sciences, computers, technology, ...things you need to function in life. I think we should be bringing back farming now that most kids don't know a thing about it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. There are numerous advantages when it comes to learning how to write in cursive. Most of them are related to mental development and intellectual skills.
    James Anthony || mycursive.com

    ReplyDelete