{"id":2632,"date":"2013-05-06T08:46:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T12:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/?p=2632"},"modified":"2013-05-06T08:46:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T12:46:45","slug":"should-we-kill-cursive-ctd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/2013\/05\/06\/should-we-kill-cursive-ctd\/","title":{"rendered":"Should We Kill Cursive? Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contribute your two cents to the\u00c2\u00a0growing<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0thread<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A reader writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Is it that Polikoff and Gladstone are under the impression that teaching children to write in cursive somehow takes up too much time? Or that children are vessels into which we can only fit so much, and therefore we should not try to teach them anything \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unnecessary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?\u00c2\u00a0Pure hogwash on both counts. Learning to write legibly and speedily by hand is, in my own humble experience, invaluable. Any endeavor that requires note-taking in any real degree, especially in real time, becomes immensely more easy and pleasurable if one writes well in cursive, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much faster than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153print\u00e2\u20ac\u009d letters.<\/p>\n

And think about the utilitarian logic of not teaching \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unnecessary\u00e2\u20ac\u009d things to children. Should we not teach them music, drawing, singing, dancing, sports or any other of the manifold pursuits that give life depth and richness but do not technically serve any real economic purpose? Preposterous.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, writing well and attractively by hand deepens our engagement with our language, instills respect for the written word, and frankly just looks better, in my opinion. It also isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really very hard. Like most worthwhile things, it just takes practice. And I reject this silly sophistry that says making things beautiful, and teaching kids to do simple, humble things like writing nicely is something we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the resources or time to give them. Instilling in them a deep sense of craft, and of craftsmanship, is in fact of the highest importance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another reader who defends cursive:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n

The greatest lesson I ever learned came from an idealistic young woman who spent a year in the late sixties teaching sixth grade at the American Community School in Hampstead between gigs with the Peace Corps. \u00c2\u00a0When asked by a fellow student why we were studying a seemingly insignificant thing, she replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not here to learn stuff. \u00c2\u00a0You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re here to practice\u00c2\u00a0how <\/i>to learn stuff, because no matter how old you get, you will always need to learn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another:<\/p>\n

\n

Cursive, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taught in schools now, was actually not intended to be for handwriting. \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u009dLooped cursive,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with its letters that look nothing like print, originally comes from letterforms inscribed \"FontinAustralia\"<\/a>by copperplate engravers. \u00c2\u00a0Credit for this knowledge goes to Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay, calligraphers who for years have had a side gig running handwriting improvement workshops for doctors! \u00c2\u00a0They also take issue with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ball and stick\u00e2\u20ac\u009d method of teaching print handwriting, as each letter often requires two or more strokes, and advocate instead for italic-style handwriting, which is much more natural (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve attached the best comparison I can find). \u00c2\u00a0As an added bonus, italic handwriting easily transitions into cursive.<\/p>\n

Who knows if any of this will be relevant in the digital age, but apparently the difficulty of writing in cursive also assists memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

via The Dish http:\/\/dish.andrewsullivan.com\/2013\/05\/06\/should-we-kill-cursive-ctd-2\/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Dish%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contribute your two cents to the\u00c2\u00a0growing\u00c2\u00a0thread: A reader writes: Is it that Polikoff and Gladstone are under the impression that teaching children to write in cursive somehow takes up too much time? Or that children are vessels into which we can only fit so much, and therefore we should not try to teach them anything … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Should We Kill Cursive? Ctd”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[182,6,843],"class_list":["post-2632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-reader","tag-andrew-sullivan","tag-ifttt","tag-the-dish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2skW4-Gs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}