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POLL RESULTS
Is Cursive Writing Worth Teaching?
Although most poll respondents vote in favor of teaching cursive, many
commenters think class time is better spent on more practical pursuits.
Global Communication Skill
Four or five times a week, students
will be reading a book and some of
the text will be in cursive, which they
cannot decipher, and they need me to
interpret it. If we don’t teach them this
skill, we are not preparing them for
their future in a very global society,
where most cultures predominately
use a type of cursive handwriting.
Suzanne Livingston
Second Grade Teacher
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Waste of Time
Cursive is, for the most part, a waste
of time. I stopped using cursive the
second I was allowed to. There are a
lot more important things we should
be teaching our children other than
making their words look pretty. Education needs to be about teaching
practical things.
Ben Marshall
Education Student
Bowling Green, Ohio, USA
Prepare for the Future
The utility of cursive should not be an
issue. Teaching cursive is a great way
for a student to develop fine motor
skills. At one time, cursive was taught
before printing, because it developed
rhythm and flow in hand motion. It
is important to expose students to a
variety of experiences that challenge
various aspects of their minds, so that
they have a point from which adaptation can start as they encounter an
unpredictable future.
Joel Fox
Retired Professor
Lady Lake, Florida, USA
Going, Going, Gone
There is not enough time to teach
cursive with the right emphasis. When
I taught third grade, cursive was a requirement. Then I moved to fifth grade
and found there was no use for cursive.
Papers were typed, and students were
not allowed to write in cursive on the
state test. It is becoming more obsolete
in the “grown-up” digital world, and
there are more important skills that
teachers have to focus on.
Angela de Guzman
Teacher
Reistertown, Maryland, USA
Child’s Play
My son recently finished kindergarten at a French school in the U.S. and
loved working on cursive. It is taught
at an earlier age in the French system
to help students develop not only fine
motor skills, but concentration and a
sense of mastery. This being said,
I don’t see him needing to utilize
this style of writing as he grows older.
Not only does technology make this
easier, most adults I know write in
print or block letters so their ideas
and thoughts are actually legible.
Melinda Kolk
Vice President, Tech4Learning
San Diego, California, USA
Digital Age Angle
The tech aspect of this is creating
a program and trackpad that would
allow students to practice at home
and post their work to online learning environments.
John Moody
Career and Technology Education Teacher
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
No Longer the Fastest
I have been promoting dropping
the instruction of cursive from our
curriculum for over 15 years. Cursive
writing was developed as a faster way
to put words on paper. Today students
are printing; typing on computers,
smartphones, and iPads; texting;
podcasting; and using voice-to-text.
Craig Nansen
Director of Technology
Minot, North Dakota, USA
Ancient History
I think it should be taught. Left-handed students should also have
their knuckles hit until they learn
to write right-handed. Just kidding.
Beyond a signature, I think cursive
is a relic of a horrible past.
Steven Wells
Comment on the ISTE Facebook page
Unrecognizable
Cursive doesn’t work as well with
handwriting recognition devices,
and moving forward most communication will be device dependent.
Easy IEP Help
Comment on the ISTE Facebook page
Technological Workaround
I have an adult child with a learning
disability. Two things he never mastered
were committing his multiplication
tables to memory and cursive handwriting. Both are easily overcome
through technology.
Kathleen Kosobud
Comment on the ISTE Facebook page