Pages


Friday, January 26, 2024

California writes cursive back into elementary school curriculum

California elementary schools are now required to teach cursive in the classroom. 

It has not been a requirement since 2010, but many schools including a portion of classrooms at Stockton Unified School District continued teaching it.

*****

That is what cursive has done for hundreds of years, with most of our history written in this style.

I've spent hours and hours in libraries, courthouses and historical societies poring over their records doing research on gold mines and Gold Rush towns. I can't ever recall seeing one that was written in print. If I hadn't learned cursive in school. all that information would've been lost to me.

12 comments:

  1. If you're old enough, you might have actually been graded on 'penmanship'.

    Superintendent of Stockton Unified School District, Dr. Michelle Rodriguez, is a good one. Stockton should be proud of her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah; and now, just as then, cursive comes in handy when there's no electricity... "LOOK, MOM!! I can still write when the grid goes down!!!"

    I especially like "Research shows that it works in a part of your brain that is not active while typing or printing." I be the same can be said of anyone while working in any capacity in the state legislature!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was called "Long Hand" back in my day when we had pens with nibs and inkwells. The first hour of each day after we recited the 23rd psalm, sang The National anthem and put our hands over our hearts faced the flag and recited the pledge of allegiance, was spent practicing writing both capital and lower case letters on blue lined yellow sheets of paper as we watched the teacher write them on the black board.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With ruled lines on the chalkboard. I'm still the only one that can read my cursive. It resembles cryptic code, which is OK by me.

      Delete
  4. I would like to see it come back into fashion

    ReplyDelete
  5. There is a reason for California teaching cursive again: Joe Buyden. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ps2-iOb9W3g

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now CA needs to find a cursive-literate teacher

    ReplyDelete
  7. If I'm not typing notes, I'm printing them. Cursive was always a waste of time but it is useful for hiding the rare incorrect spelling. People in my lab don't need to be trying to decipher squiggly letters in any given font. That said, I have seen notes from others and some people have nice writing, but so what? Do fancy letters change their meaning? Do they help with knowledge retention? Does cursive make a document easier to read? Nope, just something to introduce errors.

    Cursive is a waste of student time that could be better spent learning the sciences, a second language, or something useful. If someone wants to learn cursive, do it as a hobby or as an elective.

    There is a certain pleasure gained from reading a document in printed handwriting that looks like a page from a book. Efficient and easy to read, no flash and pop to garble data or cause confusion. I'm stingy about my numbers looking good but my letters need more polish.

    - Arc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, screw historical documents, right?

      Delete
    2. Fuck Art. Fuck music.
      Fuck all that shit. Don't need no edumacation beyond two pluf two.

      Knuckledraggers are everywhere Anon, ain't that right, Kenny?

      Delete
  8. Disband the Dept of Education and salt the earth the building was built upon.
    The bar has continually been LOWERED for the last 80 years. Its downright shameful. And whats worse, is high achievers are literally held back and defunded, so we can shovel more money into caretakers for Corky drooling over there in the corner. But if we spend 3 million tax dollars on Occupational Therapists over his lifetime he can just barely learn to wipe his own ass!!! How empowering that is for Corky!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Two points:
    1) Students who write on paper show better understanding of the material and retain it longer than students who type
    2) Even when minimally proficient, writing in cursive is faster than printing.

    Kurt

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated due to spam, drunks and trolls.
Keep 'em civil, coherent, short, and on topic.