Posted by Rita
Newsflash
The July 22 edition of The Week reported that Indiana has stopped requiring schools to teach 3rd graders cursive. Instead they will focus on keyboard skills. Is there a future or a need for cursive?
To Cursive Or Not To Cursive?
The standard joke over the years has been if you’re handwriting is illegible, “You must be a doctor.” That joke has a serious origin. Many of us have needed cursive translators, for real. The keyboard, our digital pen, allows clear communication of our needs and thoughts. I adopted print over cursive because no one, I mean no one could read my handwriting—including myself.
The Write Way
If they cut cursive out now, perhaps print will be next. Then we can all sign with an X again, like in the days when so many people could not read or write. Could we possibly return to that scary past?
Writing by hand is making a personal appearance on paper. Think of the wonderful letters throughout history that tell us about our personal and collective histories, love stories and war stories and the stories of mankind. Oh wait, now they will all be saved on email (or will they?) They will all look, smell and feel the exact same, not like a letter.
The Pen Mightier Than The Keyboard?
The article from The Week states, “Studies have found that handwriting boosts fine motor skills in children, and writing things out by hand enhances comprehension and learning.”
The cognitive skill and hand coordination that comes with the use of a pencil or pen is tactile tickling of the brain for thoughts, for dreams, for a personalized history that won’t ever crash or be deleted.
What do you think?
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