| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| knitnpickinatune |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 2:10:33 PM
I saw this on my local news-yep-schools are thinking of no longer teaching cursive handwriting to kids as "they use keyboards now". That really blew my mind. I learned to write cursive,tho my skills have diminished because of the keyboard. Just amazing......
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| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| prariehawk |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 7:10:25 PM
I don't have kids in school, but it seems to me that way too much emphasis is placed upon promoting "self-esteem" among students. Trouble is, when you get a real job, your employer doesn't care one iota about your self-esteem issues. And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't part of good self-esteem come from being challenged and overcoming that challenge? It just seems to me that kids will feel good about themselves when they have good verbal, math, reading skills upon which all other learning is based. You can bet that the Chinese and the Indian students don't worry about self-esteem--they are motivated to learn because they know that will lead to a better life than many of their fellow citizens. I think the public schools are producing a lot of poorly educated kids who supposedly "feel good about themselves." And when they realize they can't compete with other cultures, they're going to feel pretty bad about themselves. I'm glad my nieces attend Catholic schools and my nephews attend a competitive public school. and I'm glad for the primary education I received at an old-fashioned "country" school.
Cindy
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"In many ways, you don't just live in the country, it lives inside you"--Ellen Eilers
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| 4forMe |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 12:35:10 PM
Oh and my biggest gripe with Everyday Math. They don't require the kids to memorize their multiplication facts, they use a "lattice method"...boggles the mind. As for long division is not taught at all. It says right in the 4th grade Everyday math teacher's manual "don't bother using class time to teach long division, allow them to USE CALCULATORS". My son struggled for the longest time when he switched to classic math when we home schooled. He fought memorizing those multiplication tables and doing long division, but finally relinquished, when I told him that this is the way the real world works and he needed to get with the program. Now he is an "A" math student at the Catholic School where they study classic math. He is in Algebra now and doing great!
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| crafter |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 10:05:13 AM
my daughter is now 14 years old and was NOT taught cursive, everything is keyboarding and speed. Drives me crazy, how in the world does she sign a check, a letter, any legal document when she gets older??? How foolish we have become!
Lori
She knows how to write in cursive, we taught at home! :o) |
| MagnoliaWhisper |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 10:03:53 AM
Wow this really is amazing to me. I was planning on homeschooling any way, but reading this has finalized it. My brother taught me to cursive write and read when I was 5, he was 7 and learning it in the second grade! I think if you are taught it from a early age it is very simple to read, I have never had a problem reading it. Plus, I'm not one to haul my laptop every where I go. I go to many things (at least twice a week sometimes more) where I need to take notes, for a average of 2 hours each time, sometimes more though-sometimes up to 8 hour meetings! I can't imagine sitting there with a laptop trying to keep up with my notes. Writing in cursive to keep up with my notes works well for me. and yup I can read them and so can others afterwards.
They started the calculator thing when I was in high school, my mom bought it (because it was required) I was allowed to take it to school and use it at school, but then I was made to do it on paper at home! I am so glad I was. You don't know the number of store clerks I have ran into that HAVE to have the machine working to do anything! One time I was at a sidewalk sale where every thing was 50 percent off. The simplest of percentages. The power went out in the store, so the manager told the clerk she would have to do it on a paper receipt pad, and she would bring her a calculator. I said, well can you go ahead and check me out. I only have one item, it's marked two dollars so that means at 50 percent off it's only 1 dollar, I think we could go ahead and do that with out a calculator since I don't have a lot of stuff. And the clerk said, how do I know that 50 percent off 2 dollars is only 1 dollar? No she could not check me out till the manager came back with the calculator! I was in shock! Literal shock! I have been able to do simple divide by 2 since I was in about second or third grade with out a calculator. At first I thought the clerk was kidding, then she got mad at me and I realized she was not joking! That is sad, sad, sad. I wanted to know, how do these same people know if they are getting paid correctly? How do they know if they are in budget for the month on their household expenses? etc. It worries me for them!
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| knitnpickinatune |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 09:44:21 AM
In reading the replies here it reminded me of one thing where cursive is absolutely necessary-at the college where I've worked part time,when a student make a claim that they never received a refund check,or an employee that claims they never got their pay check in the mail-there's an affidavit form they need to fill out. In the section where you state the reason you're requesting a replacement check,it has to be done in cursive handwriting as the school has a handwriting analyst go over it to ensure the individual is on the up & up. Yes,I've had students who have no idea what cursive is,much less how to do it. Frustrates them and just amazes me.
On a slightly different angle,the college also rents out those hi techno wizzy math calculators,which they have run out of. I get students with the paperwork to make the $20 deposit to get one. You should see the dismay & panic on their faces when I tell them the school ran out & the next best thing is to buy a used one from an online auction.
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| Okie Farm Girl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 09:30:07 AM
Annette, oh dear!! I actually come from a family of educators - my dad is a retired college professor in early childhood education, mom was elementary school teacher, sister is a 2nd grade teacher and I was an art teacher in middle school for a short time. I finally came to the realization that God had given me my children and had put the reponsibility of supervising what was going into their little minds. I was so distressed at what I was seeing in the public school while teaching there myself that I decided to teach my children at home. I have never regretted that decision and they are very active, productive, college-educated, adult citizens today.
Mary Beth
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The Sovereign Lord is my strength - Habakkuk 3:19 |
| Heartbroken farmgirl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 09:24:06 AM
Mary Beth,
My MIL is a teacher. She unfortunately is also a gambling addict, so she was often turning down jobs, and spent NO time helping my DH. She was subbing when my DH was in grade school. One day, while in the 6th grade, my DH asked my FIL what a verb was!! My FIL came unglued!! He called a meeting with the teacher, principal, and the superintendent. My DH was on the honor roll. He wasn't reading well, spelling well, and now didn't know what a verb was. My FIL was told that the "principals honor roll" was established to make the kids feel less left out, when their grades were struggling. Then he was told, "your wife is a teacher, and we didn't want to embarrass her or your son, so we gave him higher marks."!!!! No one knew he was having a hard time. My FIL started working the field earlier in the am, and tutoring my DH after school, and then goin back out after dinner. WHAT WAS MY DH GOING TO SCHOOL FOR?!? This is crazy. I thought this was an isolated problem with my DH, and small town politics. I adore the elementary school my kids attend.
My FIL's last words at that meeting were "these kids don't have learning disabilities so much as y'all have teaching disabilities." Maybe he was correct, and we are diagnosing the wrong group.
This is terribly sad.
The tears I shed then, watered the flowers I harvest now.
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"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values."-Dean William Ralph Inge |
| BarefootGoatGirl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 09:10:44 AM
ok, i never understood the concept of cursive writting anyway. i hate it! i had to learn it in school, but completely refused to use it. for some reason we are told that it is the proper way to write, but it is difficult to read. my father writes in tiny all upper case letters that are clear, concise, and easy to read...what is the point in writting if the reader has to struggle to make out your message? i dont think that handwriting should be neglected in our schools, but i certainly do not have an issue if they want to do away with cursive.
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| Alee |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 09:07:26 AM
Wow- That is a big change. I buy Nora preschool workbooks and one of them was cursive. She can read the different letters most of the time but sometimes she does ask for help. I am concerned about her learning everything that I learned and more so we will be doing light homeschooling at home in addition to public school. Summers will have a schedule and different learning adventures and activities as well as workbooks to go through. I think that learning can be fun and it is good for their brains to continually be stimulated.
Alee
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| Okie Farm Girl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 08:09:00 AM
My number 1 reason for homeschooling came when my son's teacher, at parent teacher conference, handed me my son's work and I couldn't read it or make heads or tails out of what it was supposed to mean. There was an 'A' on the papers and I asked why. She said that they weren't worried about spelling, grammar or writing, but just wanted the kids to feel like they were communicating. I told her that communication requires that the one to which one is communicating have some grasp of what is being communicated!! I said that his papers didn't communicate a thing to me. And he could barely read on top of that. He came home to school and has now graduated with a bachelors in mathematics and is in the field of aviation!! And he writes cursive!! :-)
Mary Beth
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The Sovereign Lord is my strength - Habakkuk 3:19 |
| 4forMe |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 08:03:57 AM
Yes, in MD, Spelling lists are no longer taught or practiced after the 5th grade. The comment I have received from two different teachers was "well, they will have spell check on their computer"...UM WHAT!
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| Heartbroken farmgirl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 07:50:22 AM
The small town school my DH went to didn't teach cursive either. Occasionally, I forget, and I'll leave a little note around the house for him in cursive. He gets so frustrated trying to read it. Then I feel bad. I think if an adult who is smart, financially well set, responsible and successful, gets frustrated, how much more frustrated must kids get, while their #1 focus is education? Another thing the education board took out of studies for a while was SPELLING! From 2nd grade to 7th grade my DH never had a spelling or vocabulary word. Then, they said just look up the words, and the students didn't know enough of the way the word was spelled, to find in in Websters!! Yet implemented spelling again, but this particular group really missed out.
Why are we cutting vital bits of life out of school. I know sports and music are a finance cut, but spelling and handwriting ARE FREE to teach, and you've got the teacher standing right there anyway. So what if we have *spell check* and computers...should our children have stopped learning arithmetic too? Calculators & adding machines have been around for years!!
The tears I shed then, watered the flowers I harvest now.
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"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values."-Dean William Ralph Inge |
| MrsRooster |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 07:31:52 AM
I often wonder why all these schools have top rating or gold star. Who determines these standards? The school system itself?
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Farmgirl #1259
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| 4forMe |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 07:26:38 AM
I was mortified when I realized my kids weren't learning cursive...they haven't taught it in our county in MD for many years. My son at age 12 received a handwritten letter from a relative and couldn't read it. This is an honor roll student. I have since bought hand writing books and taught my kids cursive handwriting myself. Here in MD, they don't teach grammar beyond noun, verb and adjective. I have my middle school children going to a Catholic School and we are pleased with the education and discipline there. My goal is to get all of my kids out of our public school and have them all attending the Catholic school. Oh and they use Everyday Math here...another atrocity in my opinion. What really blows my mind is that there is some statistic out there that says MD public schools are the top public schools in the nation...UM...what? Really? I don't think so.
Sewing, knitting, gardening mom of 5. |
| MrsRooster |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 07:01:22 AM
Another reason that I am glad I homeschool. I am in the process of starting to teach my six year old cursive. It is so much more than just writing.
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| annielaurel |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 05:50:16 AM
If the schools keep dumbing down our children pretty soon they will stop teaching writing skills such as verbs, nouns and adjectives. So many students are graduating now without these skills. The teachers are being pressed to do so much there is little room for the study skills the children need. So much pressure is about testing and teacher performance these days. All about scores and numbers. Too bad for the children. I used to be a teacher when we had time to do all the cursive writing exercises like circles in the air and on the paper.
~Nancy~
Farmgirl #2301
Live life to the fullest |
| Okie Farm Girl |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 05:40:59 AM
Cursive has always been a requirement for signing legal documents. It is harder to fake someone's cursive than it is to fake block printing. Also, cursive is faster. This is why many schools moved to the 'D'Nelian' style of printing because once children learned to print in D'Nelian, all they had to do was connect the letters and 'voila', cursive. My sister is a teacher and I am troubled by the ridiculous stuff that has been piled on the school systems by the government that keeps them from teaching. Next thing we will hear is that arithmetic will no longer be taught because kids have graphing calculators. We are crippling our kids!!
Mary Beth
www.OklahomaPastryCloth.com
www.Oklahomapastrycloth.com/blog
The Sovereign Lord is my strength - Habakkuk 3:19 |
| FieldsofThyme |
Posted - Apr 06 2011 : 04:56:45 AM
Yep. They require typed papers, even in elementary some times. I bought homeschool handwriting books for here at home.
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| prariehawk |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 8:23:36 PM
Well, if they can't write (and presumably can't read) cursive, then I hope they don't go into the medical profession. You know what they say about doctors' handwriting--it's true.
cindy
"Vast floods can't quench love, no matter what love did/ Rivers can't drown love, no matter where love's hid"--Sinead O'Connor
"In many ways, you don't just live in the country, it lives inside you"--Ellen Eilers
Visit my blog at http://www.farmerinthebelle.blogspot.com/ |
| SylviaE |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 4:47:30 PM
Just a thought here-I think what they might be eliminating is instruction in "cursive" writing. With all of the othere things that the state and federal governments mandate that we as teachers do-there is just not much time left to teach things like cursive writing. Some kids pick it up naturally, but many don't. Kids will still be taught to print though. They have to be able to use a pencil to take the state writing test-in Texas it is TAKS.
Sylvia E
Farmgirl Sister #2871 |
| knitnpickinatune |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 4:14:28 PM
I agree-and What about writing ideas,grocery lists,reminder notes,and heaven forbid.....hand addressing envelopes???
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| mywunderfullife |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 3:41:10 PM
So how are they supposed to learn to READ handwriting if they aren't even being taught to write it???? I think that we rely way to much on technology.
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| embchicken |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 3:40:51 PM
I am proud to say that our school still teaches handwriting. And I know this sounds cliche - but I went to Catholic school and I still have that great " catholic school" penmanship!
~ Elaine
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi
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| melody |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 2:58:08 PM
I think thats so sad...There used to be a time where you would be proud to have a "fine" writing hand. What is happening to our world?
My father taught elementary school for over 25 years and was actually approached by a young man asking him what the time was. The young man couldn't read my fathers watch because it wasn't digital---Progress is not always better!
Melody
Farmgirl #525 |
| knitnpickinatune |
Posted - Apr 04 2011 : 2:49:51 PM
I once waited on a jr college kid that thought I was a genius because when I was in high school,you did your reports on a manual typewriter. The kid felt that setting the margins on the typewriter & doing an outline by hand were way beyond his mental abilities. Scary,I tell you......(I miss not having the sound of typewriter keys going when I'm on the computer)
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