“My grandkids cannot read or write cursive. What is your opinion on teaching or not teaching cursive writing in school?”
The e-mail, from my friend Allan Schilter (name used with his permission), caught me by surprise. I confess I hadn’t thought much about this, though it’s clear that cursive writing is used less and less these days – by all of us. Allan doesn’t give ages for his grandchildren, but I assume if they’re ‘reading’, they are likely in school, and I’m deducing they have not been introduced to cursive writing?
I loved Allan’s question. After some thought, here was my initial (somewhat edited) response.
Allan: Well, you’ve hit me with a good question!! I’m not 100% sure how I feel, or if I’ve formed an official opinion as such. But you’ve got me thinking about it now!
Cursive writing is just so second-nature to folks our age, isn’t it? How can folks not know, let alone learn, it?!
But I wonder (because one must ask, no matter how one ends up answering): Is that akin to early 20th century folks saying “Saddling horses is just so second-nature to folks our age, isn’t it? How can folks not know or learn it? How can my grandkids take a ride in the woods with me if they can’t saddle their horses? (What?! They don’t even have horses?!)”
Because, when I step back as objectively as I can, I guess I’m forced to notice this perspective: Cursive writing is/was a highly-convenient shortcut for folks who needed to communicate by hand, which nearly all of us have had to do for so long! It was so needed, of course, it was introduced into curriculum long ago.
Will it continue to be a ‘basic skill’ as we move down the road? For that matter, was it ever a ‘basic skill’ in any other way than an almost-essential shortcut? Will our grandkids ‘need’ this shortcut to be well-informed and well-educated citizens?
Those questions aren’t made easier by the fact that you and I are stuck in the middle. We’re in the middle of an evolution – not a revolution – so it’s hard for us to notice, let alone accept, the (possibly-inevitable?) changes. In this respect, and others, the ‘cursive’ question is like its cousin, the ‘calculator’ question.
Well, there you have it . . . I’m not sure I’m ready to admit this to myself, but I think maybe, as we move into the future, we’ll probably eventually view learning cursive as a luxury to use for a shortcut (to communicate with granddads, write in journals, etc), rather than an absolute necessity for a well-educated person.
As I re-read this response, I’m still now sure how I feel. I suspect the response generated some knee-jerk negative reactions, and I’m not sure I didn’t initially have one myself! Part of me feels that a well-educated future citizen would know cursive, but is that conditioned habit talking? What do you think?
Ironically, I remember the flip side of the coin: Years ago, before our kids could take the traditional high school ‘typing’ class, they each occasionally began to need to use the keyboard for a variety of reasons. As a result, they each ‘learned’ to type. Mostly by trial/error, and not necessarily smoothly, mind you, but they were motivated, and it met their needs.
So, in this similar transition-to-the-future phase, might our kids also learn cursive on their own, as they are motivated to do so for whatever reasons? Whether that answer is currently satisfying or not, the larger educational question, like other similar ones, must continue to be asked.
I’ve often wondered what brilliant mind decided we should give up cave drawings, marks, cuneiform & hieroglyphs for cursive writing, but I’ve adapted.
Of the four of our grandchildren who are old enough to recognize that it is not just Grandma’s messy handwriting that makes the difference between printed & cursive writing, two have, —on their own, since it is not taught in their schools anymore—, begun learning how to write in cursive. The other two grandchildren seem content to take a message written in cursive to someone who can read the cursive for them.
In order to effectively communicate in writing with my grandchildren, I have chosen to adapt. That is, I write in cursive to those who are interested in cursive, & print (though my printing is even less legible than my cursive!) when writing to those who see no reason to learn cursive. I judge the relationship with my grandchildren is more important than the medium used.
I don’t think cursive will ever disappear from usage entirely. There is too much of our history & literature sequestered in it. Though, one day, the position of Scribe may need to be resurrected in order ‘translate’ cursive for the masses.
Thanks, Jan! Interesting and enlightening thoughts. I like the idea of ‘two-way adapting’ (though that is perhaps not how you would say it.) I agree completely.
Being able to at least read cursive is important. There was a story several years ago about a courtroom trial where an attorney asked the witness to read a passage on a piece of paper. The witness said he couldn’t because he didn’t read cursive.
On another note: Some of us like to read older letters from family and friends and peruse historical documents. Speaking of which I recall having to read hundreds of pages of newspapers printed in the early 1800s (while working on a major paper for my masters) where there were all kinds of print and cursive conventions such as fs for double ss. Our language and how we use and display it are constantly changing.
There are a number of reasons I don’t text (my phone doesn’t have a keyboard being primary) but one is that I don’t know the conventional abbreviations, and people don’t seem to be able the decipher what makes sense to me, i.e., ckg for checking.
Good thoughts, Liz – and interesting. And I tend to agree with many, if not all, of them.
All those things you mention are indeed items to consider, but will, it seems to me, get further into the past as we go along. I would agree that ‘reading cursive’ continues (at least for me) to be DESIRABLE. My question, however, still stands: Will it continue to be a ‘basic skill’ worthy of staying in the curriculum? Neither of us can answer that, of course. 🙂
At the same time, I think YOU may have made part of my point for me :-). Your sentence ‘Our language and how we use and display it are constantly changing’ is exactly my point. Will it continue to change (into the unforseeable future) to the point where it (cursive) will go the way of the saddle, or even the pencil or the blackboard or chalk or 8-tracks or DVDs or . . . Again – neither of us knows, and I’m NOT ‘debating’ you – I’m just trying to wonder about the future before it happens. 🙂
THANKS AGAIN!!
Hey Larry. I once had the same discussion with my wife a retired elementary teacher) about the fact that arithmetic (how many students would even recognize that term?) is not taught the way I learned it 60 years ago. Her reply was that there is just so much time in the day and that you needed to prioritize what you taught. The knowledge you share must be useful to the student.
Besides that, at 76 years of age, my cursive writing is illegible. I can’t even read it. Any correspondence I have with almost anyone is done using the Word program (including the use of spell check) on my computer.
Thanks, Mike. I like your wife’s perspective, and certainly becomes something else to consider in this situation.
Larry
Thanks for your reply, Larry. Perhaps it’s a matter of preferred perspective. As more of a historian, I value the thoughts, feelings and personalities of people of the past, and much of that, right now, is cursive. Of course, that will change when almost everyone uses e-mails and texts.
I actually use a combination of print and cursive in handwritten notes, realizing that certain letters of my cursive are harder to decipher as I grow older.
I have been and am very careful to use the “age appropriate” style with my nieces and nephews when I write birthday cards and other notes to them just in case they are being taught cursive. Only one actually writes back to me.
Nice follow up thoughts, Liz – and well balanced. Thanks.