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Cursive Becoming Extinct In Schools
Illustration by Sarah Dube
Written by Marisa Kaplan, Print News Editor
For centuries, superior penmanship has been recognized as a unique art. But now in the tech-savvy 21st century, cursive writing is slowly being removed from the national curriculum. It was only 30 years ago, that penmanship was considered standard in most U.S. classrooms. The elimination of cursive writing is a direct result from recent technological advances. Students today, with computers and text messaging, are left with few opportunities to use cursive.
Another explanation behind the extermination of proper handwriting in schools is standardized tests. In a recent Time Magazine article, Tamara Thornton, a University of Buffalo professor, argues, “In schools today, they’re teaching to the tests. If something isn’t on a test, it’s viewed as a luxury”. Education experts confirm the notion that penmanship should be required in classrooms just like reading, math, and science.
Some advantages of mastering the skill include higher scores on the SAT. According to the Christian Science Monitor, College Board has shown evidence that “…15 percent of students who wrote their essay in cursive did slightly better than those who used some other type of handwriting”. Writing in cursive can also teach students a new kind of hand-eye coordination that cannot be taught any other way.
Writing is now being reinforced not with pen and paper, but with computers. According to the Associated Press, “Beginning in 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to “write” on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019.” Students are instilled with the idea that using cursive is old-fashioned and rarely used. And with only 15 percent of adults writing in cursive outside of high school, it is no wonder that few English teachers include cursive writing in their lesson plans. As the U.S. becomes a more technologically advanced country, the importance of correct handwriting has been put into question.
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October 9th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I totally agree with the idea that penmanship “should be required in classrooms just like reading, math and science.” I remember I was required to learn it. We even had a special notebook with different designs to copy and repeat in many pages.
The wonders of writing in cursive are: it makes note taking -another extinct skill- quicker; it allows you to develop more on an essay question, since you add more minutes to the time given (you write faster) and for teachers, it means, less headaches and time wasted trying to decode a very bad and childish handwritten paper.
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