Local Villager aims to teach children cursive with new coloring book
 

When Francesca Malloy, of the Village of Woodbury, discovered that her 12-year-old grandson couldn’t read her letters on his own since he never learned cursive, she was in disbelief.* “I was so shocked,” Malloy said. “I don’t know I couldn’t get over that.” That’s when the idea hit her: why not create something to help

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Sort of like teaching kids how to use a Sun Dial or a Slide Rule. Things change, for the better or worst.

The Great Cursive Writing Debate | NEA

Should cursive handwriting go the way of the chisel and stone or quill and parchment, or is the pen is still mightier than the keyboard?

On team cursive, advocates point to the many studies that have shown that learning cursive not only improves retention and comprehension, it engages the brain on a deep level as students learn to join letters in a continuous flow. It also enhances fine motor dexterity and gives children a better idea of how words work in combination.

Team keyboarding say the curriculum is already packed and learning cursive is less important in an increasingly digital world.

Some research indicates there could be a middle ground. Imagine a college lecture hall where some students are taking notes on laptops while others are taking them longhand. Whose notes are better?

Researchers have found that laptop users take more notes, sometimes recording every word from the lecturer, while the longhand note-takers were slower and had to paraphrase while translating speech to paper. However, the process of transcribing enabled them to recall more of the information than the laptop note-takers.

And the dumbing down continues...

The Great Cursive Writing Debate | NEA

Should cursive handwriting go the way of the chisel and stone or quill and parchment, or is the pen is still mightier than the keyboard?

On team cursive, advocates point to the many studies that have shown that learning cursive not only improves retention and comprehension, it engages the brain on a deep level as students learn to join letters in a continuous flow. It also enhances fine motor dexterity and gives children a better idea of how words work in combination.

Team keyboarding say the curriculum is already packed and learning cursive is less important in an increasingly digital world.

Some research indicates there could be a middle ground. Imagine a college lecture hall where some students are taking notes on laptops while others are taking them longhand. Whose notes are better?

Researchers have found that laptop users take more notes, sometimes recording every word from the lecturer, while the longhand note-takers were slower and had to paraphrase while translating speech to paper. However, the process of transcribing enabled them to recall more of the information than the laptop note-takers.

Do you use a microwave oven?
Do you own a Swiffer?
Do you wash your clothes in a machine or on a washboard?
Do you dry your clothes in a machine, or out on a line in the yard?
Do you use the computer to get information, or do you rely exclusively on paper or word of mouth in-person?
Do you hand-write letters to family, or do you call them?
If you hand-write them, do you use a ball-point, gel, or marker pen? Or do you use a fountain pen that you have to dip into the inkwell to use?
If you call them, do you manually dial their phone number, or do you just touch a finger to their name on a screen (or ask alexa to call them on your behalf)?

So many conveniences have become routine, because - they're convenient, efficient, and pragmatic.

Their predecessors are now considered novelties, artifacts, eccentricities, and in some cases, even "art." Cursive is one of those things. It is not a necessary thing to know in the modern world. But it is still an artform and those who can do it well, should encourage others to learn it.

My natural cursive writing is horrible. Oddly enough, I am also a decent calligrapher.

Being able to read cursive is important if you don't want to rely on other people to tell you what a cursive documents says.

Being able to read Aramaic is important if you don't want to rely on other people to tell you what the original old testament documents say. Being able to read heiroglyphics and runes is important if you don't want to rely on other people to tell you what the drawings on the ancient walls mean.

Being able to read Greek is important if you don't want to rely on other people to tell you what Greek documents mean. And so on, and so forth.

Lots of things are important, if we want to accomplish lots of other things.

I would call it 'evolving continues.'

When did you last receive or see a cursive document?


I really cannot see the problem, if all the kids no longer use cursive.
My cursive writing has deteriorated as I have got older. I print now mostly.
My letters are written on computer, although even letter writing is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Text is the new letter.
The option to have grammar, and spelling checked for me are available.
There is also an option to dictate a letter
Changes are inevitable, and make life a lot easier.
I don't understand all the advancements, but the grand kids do.
It is their world now!

This is a noble effort. I spent 1960-1968 in grade school, and for, what, four years? Five years? that included handwriting classes. I was left-handed, which made cursive difficult, and I well remember spending hours trying to copy out each letter hundreds of times, rather as in Ms. Mallory’s book, but on pages and pages of Big Chief tablets. I’m very pleased that I can still read cursive with ease, but I reverted to printing as soon as I was able to. I’m not sure many kids today would be willing to learn to write cursive unless they are forced to, and I’m not sure Ms. Mallory’s book offers enough repetitions to learn to write cursive easily, but it might make it possible for kids to read it.

I would prefer that kids be required to learn touch typing. That would be very useful for anyone who uses keyboards for typing documents instead of just using a phone or iPad. I took a year of touch typing in high school, and I can still type 40 words per minute. I used to wish I’d learned Gregg shorthand in high school—as a writer and teacher that would have been useful. Now, however, that day has passed. I don’t need it anymore. Indeed, I don’t recall meeting anyone in my life who could still write in shorthand. I would also like to be able to read old Gothic type like that used in old German books. But I wouldn’t use it much. While we are at it, I wish I spoke more languages.

But the kids won’t even be able to read our own constitution. Guess I’m just getting older and have difficulty with change. On the other hand I really have difficulty reading old English and don’t see a problem in that. Oh well, as they say change and sh.. happens.

Read the Constitution? Riiight! Good luck with that.

Well that’s one more thing we’ll have over them. Our secret code, along with dial phones and manual transmissions. ������

Thank you Francesca we need more people like you, teachers are failing us big time!

This is such a wonderful idea! I taught for 31 years and taught cursive. The students loved learning it in 3nd grade! We reviewed all the letters in 3rd grade.
All my 3rd and 4th graders had to write their papers in cursive.

I do not think it is important for children to read or write cursive.

How do they endorse a check? With an X ???

All my grandsons High School work in UK is on his computer.
They do practically no writing at all.
Teachers set lessons, homework etc. all online.
Math, they use calculators, and in exams there are papers where the calculators can be used, but another where they have to show written formula and answers.
Different world now, to what most of us oldies grew up with.
Pen and ink when I started.
They would not allow Biro's when they first came out.
Tools of The Devil they were!!:shocked:

Checks?
Your showing your age!
They use their computer, phone, or watch.
Even a dinosaur like me hasn't written a check in years!

More like oldies holding the kids back!

I guess my thoughts on this are about the same regarding anything "new" vs. old. When things go awry like electricity or power going out, keyboards, EVs, lights, computers, televisions, Ipads, Kindles, dishwashers, washing machines etc.... we find ourselves reverting to the "old" tried and true and knowing what to do when "progress" fails us. I believe it's worth the time to learn the "old" way of doing things: reading actual books not pads, actually washing dishes by hand etc....and that includes cursive. So much of our history is written as such and not to be able to read the real documents only seems to make them appear less important when seeing them on screens. Perhaps that explains today's laissez-faire attitudes regarding preserving our actual history....

So much negativity in replies.
I remember the past, but I sure as heck don't want to go back to it.
Some of the old remedies, solutions, ways etc. are handy to fall back on when needed, but the world is full of innovation, and so much spare time to enjoy so many other things because of it.
Get with the program.
Embrace it.
It keeps you young!

Sad, the way they are teaching math is a joke too.

Cursive
 

If the children are not learning to write cursive, then
how do they formulate and write their personal signature?
And how will they match their signature on Election Day?
Printing it? What does that prove?

The author of the book did not originally graduate from high school. She left to join the USO during World War II. It wasn't until after she had 4 children that she resumed her education and got her college degree after 8 yrs. of night school and another child. Two masters degrees followed and then in her 50's she went to law school and eventually was admitted to the bar in NY. Now at the age of 99 she's become a published author hoping that her grandchildren and great grandchildren can read her handwritten cards and letters. You might say I'm proud of my mother.

It was a bigger joke when I went to school.
Kids today are light years ahead of where we were at same age in our local schools.

Most signatures are illegible.
I know mine is, but it is still my official 'mark.'
Your argument does not float!

There's nothing stopping you from learning more languages, or learning to read gothic typeface, or even learning a whole other alphabet.

I took touch typing too - on an IBM selectric with a daisy wheel. The keyboard keys were all blanked out, you only knew which letter you were about to type because you kept your pointer fingers in "home" position and learned the qwerty keyboard backward and forward - literally. By the end of the class I was at around 37wpm with 0 errors. Not bad, but not impressive either.

Having spent more of my adult life using a computer than not using one, my typing speed is up to around 90wpm with 0 errors. When I was a Kelly girl in the 1980s it was over 100wpm with 0 errors, and could take dictation "live" on an electric typewriter or computer keyboard without needing a dictaphone.

I learned to read Chaucerian English when I was 30 by typing papers for college students. Prior to that I had already learned Shakespearean English, as an elective in High School. I learned Quebecois the summer after graduating from college by living in a fishing village north of Montreal that year. And tried to learn Mandarin last year but I lost interest in it after the first month of lessons, and gave it up.

If cursive writing is a big deal to you, and you're any good at it, you could always volunteer to teach an extra-curricular class for students after school or during summer session.

When will they get to use cursive writing in life nowadays? The only time I do is writing a check to my mowers. But it is a skill I personally enjoy!

There is no such thing as useless knowledge. Everyone--------------. Longhand? I do what I call speed writing. Imagine the power goes out. The MASS, everyone does ------ Who really changes things? It is not the MASS. It is the one the MASS laughs at.

Our six year granddaughter is a first-grader in a Montessori school in D.C. She is being taught cursive writing as part of the Montessori curriculum. She enjoys it very much.