Not
too long ago, I entered into a conversation with the lady who was doing my
pedicure. Turns out she is just about
done with her degree of Elementary Education and was telling me about the
various internships she’d had and the process she was about to embark on to
secure a full-time teaching position. Naturally, I inquired as to what grade
she wanted to teach. She told me that she was interested in 3rd or 4th
grade because at this age, she felt the children were old enough to really
enjoy being at school and learning but not yet at that God-awful stage of the know-it-all
pre-hormone raging Tween.
As
we were talking, I remembered that I’d read something not too long before that
it was very likely that children would no longer be taught cursive writing, at
least as part of the required curriculum.
I asked her about this and she acknowledged that it appeared this was indeed
the direction the Florida public school system was headed.
I’ve
thought quite a bit about this since and, although I understand why, with the
reality of people relying on emails, social media and text messaging to
communicate with one another, cursive writing is no longer really necessary, I’m
still not sure I entirely agree with its dismissal. Here’s why.
A
person’s handwriting is unique to them. I doubt that there could be any two people
with the exact same handwriting. Whether
the letters are flowery and flowing or small and cramped, precisely formed or
all over the place, elegant or sloppy, legible or not; handwriting is a person’s
signature. If a sample of handwriting
from people who have figured prominently in my life were put in front of me, I’m
fairly confident I’d be able to correctly match each sample with each
individual. And, like other things
associated with people I’ve loved, catching sight of a departed dear one’s
handwriting can instantly bring that person back to me, if only for as long as it takes me to read what they’d written.
I’ve run across many people who have said they treasure letters from
grandparents, parents, siblings, spouses, children; that it brings them comfort
to see their handwriting.
Aside
from personal reasons, a more practical one for reconsidering doing away with
the practice of learning cursive is that in learning to write cursive, one also
learns how to read it. The pedicure lady told me that, when her teenaged
niece received a birthday card from an older female relative with a handwritten
note inside, she handed the card to her aunt and said, “I can’t read this. What does it say?”
Ok,
ok, those who know yours truly might always say this about MY handwriting; in
fact, there are only a handful of people in my life who can actually read it
(my Father recently told me he’s come to call my handwriting “cursing” instead
of “cursive” because he curses the entire time he’s trying to decipher it),
but, I do think I’m sort of an exception rather than the norm.
There
are millions and millions of historical documents, letters, journals, logs,
etc., that are in cursive. If future
generations cannot understand them, we’re going to need an entire new occupation
for those few who can decipher cursive!
Yes, yes; if we continue to go the way we’re going there will eventually
be no more cursive, but, still. We’d
best get busy with the translation, then.
And what about all of the museums whose various exhibits contain
placards of snippets of original letters or journal entries or, or, or? Will the museum curators have to be able to
stand ready to translate?
So,
then, these are two reasons; personal signature and the ability to read
historical documents. Are these sufficient
to continue with the practice of teaching cursive? Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, there
were, obviously, subjects taught in grade school hundreds of years ago (or
maybe even just 50 years ago) that, by nature of scholastical and sociological evolution,
became obsolete and would be totally ridiculous to teach in this day and age. It could be that cursive is just another of
these subjects.
There
is another excellent point that eliminating cursive frees up the teachers (and
students) to focus on more important and relevant studies (I personally think
that, sooner or later, there will be a subject centering entirely on how to
effectively figure out a new cell phone!)
Perhaps
there will eventually be an elective offered, either in high school or college
(or both); a class in cursive writing that someone can take instead of, say,
home economics, auto shop, choir, or French.
Who
knows what will eventually befall cursive writing. After thinking this through as I wrote this
entry, I am sort of on the fence as I can truly see both sides of the
argument.
What does everyone out there in Blog-Land think?
As
for my own writings; my diaries and
journals, my secrets are safe, regardless!
