| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Off topic: Cursive writing no longer taught in schools Thread poster: Jeff Whittaker
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Jeff Whittaker 
United States
Local time: 07:57
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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Schools in the U.S. are no longer teaching cursive or script handwriting. Has this trend spread to other countries?
| | | | patyjs
Mexico
Local time: 05:57
Spanish to English
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| I used to teach in Mexico... | Sep 7, 2010 |
Here, I think the only schools that teach cursive are Montessori. In England, where I grew up (many years ago) we were taught cursive in primary but then we never used it after that. Shame.
| | | | | Not sure, but... | Sep 7, 2010 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
Schools in the U.S. are no longer teaching cursive or script handwriting. Has this trend spread to other countries?
Not sure, but when I was a little girl (in Romania, where we were taught preeeeetty-preeeetty cursive writing, actually the only form of writing, as far as I remember), it seemed to me that foreigners (i.e. Western Europeans) could only form print-script letters. It was cute
| | | | NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 07:57
Member (2002)
French to English
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MODERATOR | I never gave this a moment's thought | Sep 7, 2010 |
I simply assumed cursive was taught everywhere, as a matter of course, as it is taught here. They start with printing through JK and SK (junior and senior kindergarten, or maternelle-jardin) then in Grade I they turn to cursive.
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| You didn't use joined up writing at secondary school? | Sep 7, 2010 |
patyjs wrote:
Here, I think the only schools that teach cursive are Montessori. In England, where I grew up (many years ago) we were taught cursive in primary but then we never used it after that. Shame.
Seems bizarre to me - surely you'd use joined up writing as a matter of course, once you'd been taught it?
[Edited at 2010-09-07 17:13 GMT]
| | | | | But they are teaching it... | Sep 7, 2010 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
Schools in the U.S. are no longer teaching cursive or script handwriting.
Jeff, where does this information come from?
At my son's school, they definitely teach cursive handwriting.
They learned the lower case letters last year (2nd grade) and will continue with upper case this year, in 3rd grade.
Katalin
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 07:57
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:57
French to English
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| Great educational priorities... | Sep 7, 2010 |
Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:
At my son's school, they definitely teach cursive handwriting.
Great -- next time your son has to use a quill, that'll sure come in handy...
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| Not if your handwriting is anything like mine | Sep 7, 2010 |
Marie-Hélène Hayles wrote: Seems bizarre to me - surely you'd use joined up writing as a matter of course, once you'd been taught it?
The general idea in Sweden used to be that those like my sister who started school in the late 50s learnt proper joined-up writing, those who started school in the early 60s (me) learnt to use print/block letters whilst simultaneously adding connecting strokes and my brother's generation (late 60s) were taught to write with print/block AND THEN add strokes...
Anyway, it looks like joined-up writing is alive either in England or Sweden today. My son - reception and year 1 in the UK, 4 years in Sweden and then back to the UK from year 6 - writes neater, both joined-up and print/block, than I do.
BTW - what do they do in Italy? Almost all my Italian friends - 30-50 years - have very beautiful handwriting.
| | | | bookwormkt
Local time: 12:57
French to English
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| Here in UK they teach cursive writing | Sep 7, 2010 |
or 'joined up writing' as the children call it!
Some teachers had to teach themselves the preferred style (not too many loops etc) from books or older colleagues, as formal teaching of cursive had not happened for some years!
I used to have a neat, legible, not too 'loopy' cursive handwriting, but these days I use the computer too much!
For dyslexic pupils, using cursive helps to remember spellings, as the correct letters in the right order enters the kinet... See more or 'joined up writing' as the children call it!
Some teachers had to teach themselves the preferred style (not too many loops etc) from books or older colleagues, as formal teaching of cursive had not happened for some years!
I used to have a neat, legible, not too 'loopy' cursive handwriting, but these days I use the computer too much!
For dyslexic pupils, using cursive helps to remember spellings, as the correct letters in the right order enters the kinetic memory. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ivan Patti
Italy
Local time: 13:57
English to Italian
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| Cursive is a must | Sep 7, 2010 |
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
BTW - what do they do in Italy? Almost all my Italian friends - 30-50 years - have very beautiful handwriting.
Dear Madeleine,
when I started primary school in 1981 I was just unable to write anything, not even my own name, just like most of my contemporaries - printed handwriting not being taught in nursery school (except for some private nursery schools where printed was taught to some very basic extent).
We were taught both cursive and printed handwriting, but cursive was the mostly used: pupils were not allowed to do their homework in printed handwriting and during class time you always had to write in cursive. This went on till the end of high school, and even written examinations at university had to be in cursive.
I don't know what's going on these days, but I don't think anything changed.
Ivan
| | | | Jande
Australia
Local time: 21:57
Danish to English
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| Modern cursive | Sep 8, 2010 |
Here they teach their very own Queensland font! Its a kind of slanted font and the os, ps, bs etc are not round but oval and a bit slanted over. Queensland modern cursive can be seen in the link below:
http://www.chancellorsc.eq.edu.au/LITERACY/Handwriting/HANDWRITING_OVERVIEW.pdf
You can see it is not really different to the non ... See more Here they teach their very own Queensland font! Its a kind of slanted font and the os, ps, bs etc are not round but oval and a bit slanted over. Queensland modern cursive can be seen in the link below:
http://www.chancellorsc.eq.edu.au/LITERACY/Handwriting/HANDWRITING_OVERVIEW.pdf
You can see it is not really different to the non joined writing.
In the 80s I learnt 'running writing', or modern cursive. It was a way of writing so you don't need to take your hand off the page, but it is much clearer and the letters are more well formed than in previous versions of cursive. I never really used it other than when it was compulsory for assignments. Rather touch typing was taught to everyone.
See appendix three in the link below for some SA cursive styles:
http://www.sacsa.sa.edu.au/ATT/{21AB4BA7-0C50-4F6E-9600-2F699503E1E2}/7HSACAppendix.pdf
Here is a link to new American cursive:
http://www.newamericancursive.com/alphabet/
I find it difficult to read many versions cursive writing. Words end up looking like a line of mmms or wwws.
I believe 'modern cursive' is not used much, because in its current form it is no faster than print. Most people I know in the parents age group can't read cursive writing made up of joined letters that are faster to write than non-joined. So it either can't be read or it is no longer quicker than other types of writing. ▲ Collapse
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Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 07:57
Member (2008)
English to French
| Canada in the 80s | Sep 8, 2010 |
I learned script right off the bat in Grade 1. I never learned how to print and just picked it up through reading - it's SO SLOW and inefficient! You have to lift your pen (pencil) so many times when you print! Obviously for reading in books, print is easier because it's clearer, but I even remember books that were printed in script (I'm thinking specifically of the Babar [the elephant] books).
Same as the others below, we HAD to use script in school, you simply couldn't hand in wor... See more I learned script right off the bat in Grade 1. I never learned how to print and just picked it up through reading - it's SO SLOW and inefficient! You have to lift your pen (pencil) so many times when you print! Obviously for reading in books, print is easier because it's clearer, but I even remember books that were printed in script (I'm thinking specifically of the Babar [the elephant] books).
Same as the others below, we HAD to use script in school, you simply couldn't hand in work done in print.
As for styles, I have two - the round, easy to read "bubble" script and the ultra-fast "doctor's prescription" script that only I can read and even then with difficulty but I can write it fast enough that I can take dictation without needing shorthand (you'd be amazed at what they teach in a girl's catholic school - shorthand! in the early 90s! like anyone used that anymore or they were preparing us for secretarial work rather than university, but I disgress). ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Surely you jest! | Sep 8, 2010 |
It is hard to imagine cursive script no longer being taught.
As an elementary student I was delighted and excited to learn cursive writing and was particularly fascinated by cursive letters that were unexpected, such as the capital Q that looked like a 2!
But even capital Q could not compare to the amazing cursive form in Hebrew, which is a misnomer because it isn't even cursive, but in which practically every letter is completely different from its block form! ... See more It is hard to imagine cursive script no longer being taught.
As an elementary student I was delighted and excited to learn cursive writing and was particularly fascinated by cursive letters that were unexpected, such as the capital Q that looked like a 2!
But even capital Q could not compare to the amazing cursive form in Hebrew, which is a misnomer because it isn't even cursive, but in which practically every letter is completely different from its block form! It took me months to get that pe sofit just right. What a beautiful letter!
I didn't get joy again like that until I was a mathematics/physics student at university, trying to master that Greek cursive Xi....
Michael ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:57
Russian to English
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