What Do You Think?

Listening to the radio on my way in this morning, they were talking about an article (that I, of course, can’t find to link it in) about schools no longer emphasizing cursive handwriting.

I, personally, find this reprehensible.  I remember learning cursive.  I loved it.  We wrote out everything in cursive all the way through elementary.  It was mandatory.  Now they don’t.  In fact, even when Man-Child was in elementary they taught them cursive and then moved on.  He never had to write in cursive again.  His handwriting is absolutely terrible.  Hmmm, wonder why?Now, granted back when I was in school (and dinosaurs roamed the earth), we didn’t have home computers to type up reports – which is why we handwrote them.  But Man-Child on the other hand is expected to type up his reports using MLA formatting.  My how times change.

Apparently, cursive handwriting is a dying art and the schools don’t seem to think that it deserves the emphasis it used to receive.  I assume they figure if they can sign their name, that’s good enough.

They figure the future is here and computers rule so why learn to write.  Well, if we follow that line of thinking – why learn how to tie shoes?  They have Velcro ones now.  Why learn how to spell when there’s spell check?  Why learn how to add, subtract, etc when we’ve got calculators.  I could go on and on.

Yes, with the advent of computers, email, twitter, etc. handwriting does seem dated.  But it’s still used everyday in every office around the world.  Quick notes, messages, etc.  And we will be unleashing these kids into a world where they won’t know how to read handwriting.  Basically, in a sense, they will be illiterate.  How very sad.

What are your thoughts – should cursive be de-emphasized (I won’t hate you or block you if your thoughts happen to differ from mine – promise!) in schools?