An Interesting Breakfast Radio Show with Sami and Yumi this morning.
Amongst other things discussed, this topic came up:
"A single sentence, uttered in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, has catapulted an issue into the national spotlight.
When asked if she could read a letter in court, witness Rachel Jeantel, her head bowed, murmured with embarrassment, "I don't read cursive," ABC News reports."
The recently established Common Core State Standards, the standardized educational benchmarks for U.S. public schools, omit cursive as a requirement. Some states, including Indiana and Hawaii, had dropped cursive from their curricula in favor of keyboard proficiency as early as 2011.
A single sentence, uttered in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, has catapulted an issue into the national spotlight.
When asked if she could read a letter in court, witness Rachel Jeantel, her head bowed, murmured with embarrassment, "I don't read cursive," ABC News reports.
Is it any surprise that cursive — the looped, curvaceous style of handwriting that's been a mainstay of education for generations — is all but dead? [15 Weird Things We Do Everyday, and Why]
"Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having been taught for decades," Morgan Polikoff, assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, told The New York Times.
"Very small proportions of adults use cursive for their day-to-day writing," Polikoff said. "Much of our communication is done on a keyboard, and the rest is done with print."
Click Here To Read Full Article
I must admit, I don't cursive write anymore my handwriting has degenerated since using the keyboard. When writing by hand, I print.
Yumi says her 9 and 11yo had just learned to print when they had to start all over again to learn cursive.
Sami says if she had kids she'd want them taught cursive writing. Of 5 callers, 3 were adamant they'd want their children to learn cursive writing. The other 2, one them a teacher said no, it's never used in real life, it's taken over by computer writing the same as we use calculator to do our maths with. The other, a child developmental practioner, said children needed cursive writing lessons to help hand-eye co-ordination.
It seems that we are regressing with the education of our children. Over 200 years we battled for public education for every child to be taught to read, write and do basic arithmetic.
I think the socially disadvantaged will become even more so if these basic skills are no longer taught in the public education system.
Technology can fail, but basic learned skills are with you a lifetime.
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(and my children laugh when they see me typing away with 2 fingers.) 
