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The end of the line for cursive writing

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Josh:
The handwriting may be on the wall for cursive.

At least that's what some people fear as schools across the country continue to drop cursive handwriting from their curricula.

Forty-one states have so far adopted the new Common Core State Standards for English, which does not require cursive. Set by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), the standards provide a general framework for what students are expected to learn before college.

States are allowed the option of re-including cursive if they so choose, which is what Massachusetts and California have done.

But the latest to contemplate abandoning the script is Georgia, where teachers and administrators will meet in March to discuss erasing the longhand style from its lesson plans, says Georgia Department of Education spokesman Matt Cardoza.

The argument is that cursive is time-consuming and not as useful as the keyboard skills students will need as they move on to junior high and high school, he says.

As it happens, cursive is also not on the tests that rate schools under the No Child Left Behind law, and increasingly schools gear their curricula to excel at those tests, says Kathleen Wright, a national project manager for Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of education writing materials.

"It's just not being assessed. That's the biggie," she says. "If it's not assessed, it tends to fall by a little because people are teaching to the test."

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Deozaan:
I never liked cursive and I never use it except for my signature.

But I hope it's covered enough that students at least know how to read cursive, which can be difficult anyway depending on the writer's penmanship.

40hz:
It was bound to happen eventually.

I'm surprised it took this long, even though it saddens me to see cursive 'longhand' begin its journey into memory.  :(

Too bad it's that moronic No Child Left Behind Act that seems to be precipitating it. Talk about twisting the knife!  :tellme:

rjbull:
Don't worry about cursive disappearing.  As soon as the oil runs out so no plastics and much less energy, rare earths run out so no semiconductors, copper at a premium, etc., meaning NO COMPUTERS, they'll have to reinvent quill pens and iron gall inks to record anything.

Renegade:
Don't worry about cursive disappearing.  As soon as the oil runs out so no plastics and much less energy, rare earths run out so no semiconductors, copper at a premium, etc., meaning NO COMPUTERS, they'll have to reinvent quill pens and iron gall inks to record anything.
-rjbull (May 15, 2011, 04:14 PM)
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That's December 21st next year. Either the Zombie Apocalypse or Skype.Net... :)

Cursive is good for motor-skill development, so I think they're kind of losing out there.

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