In 2010, U.S. public schools adopted the controversial "Common Core" curricula. The lead writers of the standards argued that student and adult communication had shifted almost entirely to technology. Consequently, they felt it was "most critical" for students to master keyboarding skills (typing) rather than a script that was becoming obsolete in professional settings. Also, developers and many teachers argued that teaching cursive takes an "enormous amount of instructional time" that could be better spent on other skills.
The real-world impact of children being unable to read cursive is explained by the mother of New York school kids.
"I can’t write letters or even short notes to them [her children] in my own handwriting — something my parents completely took for granted. Instead, I have to slowly and painstakingly write in print, to make sure they’re able to read it all," writes Natasha Pearlman in the New York Post.
"And I wonder," she adds. "What on earth will they do when they’re older, and are asked to sign their names? Will they even understand the concept of an actual signature?"
Last Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill mandating the teaching of cursive writing in grades 3-5 in primary school. New Jersey became the 25th state to mandate the teaching of cursive after just 10 states enabled the teaching of cursive after 2010.
“The return to including cursive instruction is especially meaningful as New Jersey celebrates the upcoming 250th anniversary of our country’s founding – giving our students the skills they need to read our nation’s founding documents and complete tasks like opening a bank account or signing a check, in addition to offering cognitive benefits,” Murphy said in a press release.
“Not only does handwriting instruction encourage better retention and comprehension of information, but it also allows our students to build self-confidence and maintain a vital connection to written communication in the increasingly digital age,” said one of the bill's co-sponsors, Angela McKnight.
“In an increasingly digital world, cursive has fallen by the wayside,” state Rep. Sane Watro said. “However, there are compelling cognitive, developmental, and practical reasons for ensuring students have at least a basic grasp of cursive writing.”
Students can't read 18th-century documents or sign their names, which serve as unique personal identifiers. Also, brain scans show higher engagement than typing.
Most children just don't get it, as Pearlman explains.
New York Post:
I’ve heard from more than a few parents, voicing disappointment that their children can barely write legibly — one even sharing photos of their son’s writing in first grade versus the seventh grade, which showed almost a degradation in legibility of his handwriting.
“We were lucky to have my eldest learn cursive in third grade. I recall how wonderful it was to see the neat handwriting on his projects on classroom walls when I would visit school,” the parent shared.
“After Covid, unfortunately, both my children only worked on Chromebooks and mostly have in Google classrooms,” she explained.
“Rarely do we see any projects written out anymore. When I ask my children to write birthday or thank you cards. I see their penmanship has deteriorated, which makes me sad that schools are not teaching cursive and proper penmanship anymore.”
This is a problem that is unique to America — most developed countries, from South America to Europe and the United Kingdom, are still teaching their children cursive.
The dim bulbs who wrote and pushed Common Core were dead wrong. Teachers should always make time for the most important subjects, and I believe that teaching cursive is a little more important than indoctrinating kids into hating their country and blaming white people for every known problem.
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