File this in the "dumb laws" folder:
Erica Ingber has something of a dark past when it comes to handwriting: The future elementary school principal got a C-minus in cursive in the fourth grade. But she’s ready to follow the curvy ups and downs of a new California law that requires the teaching of cursive writing, which has been cast aside as obsolete in the digital age.
But cursive is making a comeback amid concerns that learning to use a keyboard had superseded handwriting skills that are important for intellectual development — and also that a new generation of students could not write or read the flowing words of historical documents, old letters and family recipes.
I mean, I don't really care much whether school children learn to use cursive, but a state law? In order to make sure that kids will one day be able to read old family recipes? Come on.
Although I have to admit that I wonder how people sign their names if they never learn cursive. I suppose we'll find out pretty soon as the first cohort of kids who weren't taught cursive grows up.
Despite never having learned to write cursive, generations of students are able to read a huge variety of fonts, many of them designed in imitation of handwriting. What next - requiring students to master uncials on vellum? As for reading historical documents, that's a specialized research skill. If a student needs it, she can learn it. This is as stupid as requiring coding, I think.
i sign my name with a nonsense squiggle and have most of my life. you don't need to learn cursive to come up with a signature.
Exactly. I know plenty of folks who can read and write cursive, but whose signature is a logo, not a cursive version of their name. A signature just has to be unique and consistent, it doesn't have to spell anything.
This. My 16 year old recently got his own bank account, with me and my wife also on it. His signature ain't pretty, but then again neither is mine.
Next, they will mandate training in how to use a fax machine.
Kevin, I googled "is cursive writing important for intellectual development" and got a bunch of hits. I'm not an expert, and certainly I don't have a dog in this fight (I also sign my name as an illegible squiggle, have been typing my entire adult life) but .... well, there is at least some dispute about the inutility of cursive for young minds.
Perhaps you might want to check with some developmental psychologists and neuroscientists?
Hey, my thunder.
Yes!!!! Being able to take notes quickly in college was vital skill, you can only do that with cursive or shorthand. You really do remember better by writing it all down and the most efficient way to write it all down is via cursive.
I took extensive notes in college in a wide range of classes, back in the Reagan administration. I tried out using cursive then switched to printing. The ability to formulate the lecture into a coherent structure was more important than speed writing.
The last time I looked, the argument slid between learning to write by hand and learning to write in cursive, the distinction elided to meet the needs of the moment.
Learning cursive isn't going to help anyone read my handwriting. In fact, it may hinder them. And my signature? It only resembles cursive in that there are no straight lines of any consequence. But if those young whippersnappers want to be able to save 32 milliseconds while creating a shopping list, they damn well -better- learn cursive! They're sure as hell not gonna have to walk uphill, in the snow, both ways, to get to and from school, like I did! (And I can't wait to see them trying to get to school in the snow on those new-fangled battery-powered scooters! Although I'll have to move somewhere other than CA if I want to see that...) Now get the hell off my lawn... er... water-efficient yard, Drum!
I believe (quick googlating produces results of an academic nature ) there is a connection of muscular mastery of handwriting and the mental aspect of communication, literacy, and fluency exactly as there is with pronunciation and speech. If learning script alongside typing skills improves a student's ability, then I'm all for it.
But a law?! Unless that's how the state board effects change...
did the research show the muscular mastery of handwriting has to be cursive handwriting?
It's been mandatory in my state for about a decade and I had to raise four kids through the process. One of the most moronic and wasteful activities I've seen spent in school. Spending their time copying print into cursive for a few years and then forgetting this useless skill.
In my state it was basically tied to folks who think education is something from prairie schools...reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic. Suburban boomer thinking.
If they want to add it, place it in art class as it only provides further fine motor skills. Time would've been better spent memorizing vocabulary or reading.
I'll second @antiscience. Without knowing the literature I do recall quite a few stories showing a link between the muscular effort of writing in any form and remembering what you're reading, listening to, watching, thinking about, that iirc doesn't hold up for typing.
At some point, and I'm not exactly sure when, my undergraduates had almost all lost cursive and could only print on anything they didn't type or word-process. Block printing is much slower than cursive, and careful printing in caps and lower-case is much slower still. It's true that some people can print very quickly but the faster you need to go, the less readable it tends to be. There are other times people need to write by hand, even in contemporary life, in addition to those times when you need to sign your squiggle for something (and I speak as someone with an illegible scrawl).
Specifically re education, one of the main ways to be sure students are producing genuine output that you can assess fairly is to have them do it in front of you. That can mean on a keyboard, and some districts go to great lengths to set up unconnected LANs for these purposes. But that doesn't stop 5G. So there's an educational interest in that as well.
Why that needs to be in law, rather than in policy, I'm not sure.
My wife is a literacy coach (think teaches teachers how to implement phonics aka "science of reading"). According to her, cursive is actually important for a few reasons:
1) Kids who print poorly and laboriously have ingrained habits and can't correct their printing, but they can learn perfect cursive as it uses a different set of muscle movements.
2) Kids with dyslexia have an easier time with cursive as there are no simple reflections in letter appearance (e.g. b, p, q, d) and all letter forms begin at the same place (the baseline).
3) Cursive facilitates faster hand note-taking which increases retention compared with computer note-taking or none at all.
Yeah, while I don’t think handwriting should be graded (hi there, my first C grade ever!), it should be learned the same way they teach kindergartners basic scissor skills. My autism spectrum kid hates printing and almost never starts his letters at the right place or positions them correctly, but has no problem with continuous-line drawing, so I’m thinking someone* should teach him a form of cursive. Personally, I think the Palmer method is overly fussy and basically no one uses its style in real life, but there are simpler alternative styles that modify printing into script.
*probably not me, due to the aforementioned C grade and the fact that one of my professors made me write blue-book exams on every other line, since apparently grading my writing gave him a headache.
Hahaha, are we related? I had awful grades for penmanship but eventually it was good enough for me to read and others to read. But boy I could write 3-4 pages of notes per lecture in college, I was so good that I helped a guy on a student visa who wasn't a native speaker by letting him copy my notes. Later on in my career the note taking served me well in the 1990s and oughts but now nothing is on paper, I might copy random bits to notepad but what I doesn't need note taking, so my skills have withered.
I have a 22 year old daughter that did not learn cursive in school. She tried to teach herself when she was about 8, and I tried to support her. She did Ok for a bit but then we could't keep the momentum going. I had no interest in pushing, just in supporting her interest and efforts. There was zero reinforcement from school.
She signs her name by printing. Seriously. Her printing is beautiful. And slow. Which is not a problem because she types everything.
Personally, I think it's a loss, and I've seen some musings that the motor and cognitive coordination is developmentally important, I can't evaluate that claim. And I'm not a traditionalist or a nostalgist (is that a word?). I type much of the time, but I also do a lot of fast writing with a pen, mostly journaling or note taking. Can't imagine not having this skill.
Offhand cursive memory: I changed from the stump r to the swing r under the influence of a teacher in maybe the fifth grade, Mrs. Bonds. (1970s)
My ex, who is incredibly smart and has a degree in library science and excellent handwriting, signs her name with a sparse line drawing of a cat face.
No one has had a problem with that yet.
It's an art form. Even kids who don't have much of a gift have to do some art. I'm all for teaching handwriting.
Lately, I've watched a few Japanese movies (Godzilla Minus One, The Boy & the Heron, The Hidden Fortress) and been impressed by the complexity of the Japanese characters. What kind of memory and thinking, not to mention dexterity with brush or pen, does it take to learn how to write in that language?? No wonder there is such impressive artistry in Japan, China, etc.
By contrast, the roman alphabet is pure trivia, yet forming the letters by hand, particularly in cursive writing, helps with dexterity. Interpreting other people's renditions of "the same" is another mental challenge.
Contrast this with poking at some keys and having stuff appear on the screen. Any pigeon is capable of doing that. Little intellect needed; next to no fine motor control.
Similar discussions have come up with past subjects that schools have dropped from their curricula: Music. Art. Expensive to teach, worthless on The Standardized Tests. No commercial value.
Hey, thanks for this. It reminded me of the years when I worked extensively with Chinese colleagues (both here and there). They were all over “Chinese are smarter than westerners because of learning the calligraphic character system”. A big part of this was the fine motor skill required, because writing the characters was the only way to learn them. I was inspired to take courses in it, and indeed learned enough (888) to pass an elementary school exam.
I make about $70 an hour and I literally haven’t written anything in cursive since I graduated from college 2 decades ago. Not even my own name, which at this point is just a unique unintelligible scribble. I don’t cook from old family recipes, receive any letters from family other than pre printed Christmas cards, or read historical documents, and I think I do just fine in life with a keyboard for most writing needs, and printing to-do lists on paper.
This is yet another solution in search of a problem, brought to us by the Gerontocracy.
I wonder how people sign their names if they never learn cursive...
Do it the old fashioned way, like they did it 200 years ago: His mark (X)
When I was in school a million years ago we were taught to write cursive with perfect penmanship (a fool’s errand, of course.). I was a senior in hs when I learned to type, and I’ve been typing ever since (50 years). But I still use a pen and cursive for note taking because it is often just easier and simpler than typing into a device. And if I want to memorize something, copying it in cursive a few times is all it takes for excellent recall.
I remember a comment several years ago by someone (Paul Krugman maybe?) who mentioned his undergrad students had difficulty finishing exams because they didn’t know cursive and therefore couldn’t write fast enough. I’ve been out of school for decades and have no idea if exams are still given in blue books. With the rise of AI and the potential for cheating I’d expect an increase in students being forced to write by hand in the presence of proctors. Knowing cursive might be a real advantage.
You bring in your device, and download software for test taking. You turn it on and it locks the rest of the device so you can only do that. You submit and turn it off. You have to divest yourself of bags coats phone etc. before starting. Proctor walks around checking for cheating.
Thats how it was 10 years ago anyway.
Learning a second language. Brilliant.
Learning how to write letters with a particular style for no reason. Absolute waste of time.
My Thai wife can't read nor write cursive, but has no problem drawing the squiggle she chose as her signature.