I have been walking around my neighborhood in the mornings and have had a few interactions with the kids waiting for the bus. I ask them "Do they teach cursive writing in school?" To a person they say the same thing, the third grade teaches you how to trace cursive letters and then have you practice. After the third grade the kids are no longer taught how to write in cursive or even use penmanship. I asked the local School Superintendent whether or not the school system teaches and used cursive. He said emphatically, "YES, we do teach cursive through all grades". I then thought, yea, what a lame answer. He lied to my face and didn't even blink an eye. Lots and lots of tax payers are tired of this guy yet nothing can be done to remove him. The fight continues, though.
I homeschooled for many years...taught phonics and cursive writing. We utilized brain gym and the practice of a sideays figure 8 (infinity) actually balances the left/right brain and helps to be the basis for achieving the flow of all the cursive letters. The video correctly points out the advantages to the brain of writing in cursive...the video also points out it is no longer required core curriculum in public schools...it amazes me how they absolutely destroy everything they get their hands on...
You can "think" whatever you want...I believe there is more to this that has been researched than you would like to believe...so I am certainly not going to argue with you...think and believe whatever you want...but here is an article that may shed some light on the issue...read it or not...
Psychology studies are of a highly dubious nature though, as are most of the 'soft' sciences. Reproducibility and replication of study results have been extremely difficult in the past decades because of the loose nature of these fields, and given that replication is core to science as a whole, it's questionable to point at a pop-science magazine summary of a paper and claim it as 100% truthful to the real world.
"A new EEG-based study by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) reaffirms the importance of "old-fashioned" cursive handwriting in the 21st-century's Computer Age."
Makes it seem that EEG's would be able to authenticate results....
No, it doesn't, and if you had read the study, they are very clear:
"Existing literature suggests that such oscillatory neuronal activity in these particular brain areas is important for memory and for the encoding of new information and, therefore, provides the brain with optimal conditions for learning."
They are making the assumption based off prior literature that certain brain wave patterns might be linked to increased learning. They are very non-commital with the suggests and unclears that they do not have solid proof that it does effect learning.
You are taking coulds, mights, and possiblies, and turning it into does and will. Additionally, just like I had pointed out, a single study of 24 people, with not crystal clear results, does not make for a reproducible, reflective of the entire population study.
I understand what you are saying and they are valid points...I am just curious if there is any other research that has clearer results...either way it appears there "could" be advantages to learning cursive and it boils down to preference in the end...it makes me wonder if other countries writing systems have a cursive/printing option. It truly seems like cursive is an elevated form of writing. Plus the article was comparing writing vs. tablets/computers. Overall any writing appears to be a better brain function...
Back in my native country Brazil we had cursive since day ONE and along my schools years the teachers always demanded us to have a good handwriting or we would have our grades reduced. Now I see the American education system calling handwriting obsolete and archaic also they say it's too difficult for kids to understand. It is mind boggling such BS excuse. If kids in a third world country in falling apart schools can why kids in the richest county in the world cannot? Are American kids dumber? I refuse to accept this and yes my kids are going to learn cursive.
I think there's more to this than we understand. I had a trainer who was a handwriting analysis expert. You really would not believe what he could see with a couple of sentences written on a napkin. I saw him read people a dozen times to a jaw-dropping level. You just wouldn't believe it. If handwriting analysis can reveal an unbelievable amount of information about a person's character, desires, psyche, even past physical injuries... perhaps it could be true that cursive COULD do something for the brain, and learning specific ways of writing cursive could develop different attributes. Not the craziest thing I've heard that turned out to be true. I have a book called "Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life" by Vimala Rodgers. Interesting, is all I'm saying.
Thank you for your comments...I had never heard of that book but it does seem to be a more complex issue than many believe. It really is quite interesting...I agree...
I type around 172 WPM on my personal keyboard (reds), but I think much faster and I think too many things simultaneously to be able to type that fast, haha.
It is true that people are not learning to think, and the philosophy taught nowadays is a pale imitation of what it's supposed to be -- for malicious reasons no less.
At the least, cursive teaches discipline of thought and speech. When I type I'm in a hurry to get words on a page with the understanding that I can go back to edit at anytime.
Pen on paper forces an economy of expression. No one would present a poem to a lover with words scribbled out and with arrows and editing marks on it. Errors of thought or expression require the work of additional drafts to present a document that others take seriously. It's better to try to get it right the first time.
Many who type do try to edit their writing, but most probably don't, as evidenced by the verbal diarrhea on social media.
Just from personal experience, writing something down, cursive or printing, helps me to remember it. My cursive is more legible than my printing just because we were made to practice it in grammar school until we got it right. The letters were always hung up around the classroom.
Considering the world as it is now, I will say, the most valuable course I had in high school was typing.
I am probably inclined to agree. Any benefit to training cursive would likely result from learning different languages and applying them as well.
It kind of comes across as an excuse to learn cursive as tradition dictates as well as to fully comprehend the Constitution and such, but I don't know that we need an excuse for those things.
It does help one master micro muscle movements. I heard that those who didn't learn to write cursive lack the muscle control to manipulate a small screw, like for eye glasses or some such.
My Russian teacher pushed me to learn Russian cursive. He said adults write in cursive, and it is expected that candidates write in Russian on the language test for foreigners, which is necessary to get a job or attend university. I found a PDF of a children's workbook for Russian cursive and practiced for a few weeks and that was it.
My son told me they stopped teaching the kids in school how to write in cursive. I told him that they (him & his wife) better teach the kids at home then, he said they were.
My points stands regardless of an article. You do not need cursive for a signature, normal long hand isn't easier to imitate than cursive if that's what people are worried about.
I cannot think of any reason we need to write it.
There are 1,000 more important things we should be making children learn.
When you fill out papers and it says to print your name on one line and then asks for a signature on a second line...what is the distinction if there is no difference between the two?
How do you read the constitution and our founding documents, if you can’t read cursive? See why they want to get rid of it now?
Great point !!!
This very much depends on how good someone is at writing in cursive -- or rather, how legible it is.
A lot of people have quit using cursive for their signatures which is weird, but mine is still the same mixed signature I've had since I was like, 5.
The video brings up many considerations...reading the founding documents was just one of them...
That's the first thing my mother said when I told her they stopped teaching cursive!!
Plus cursive is very difficult for bots to read.
Good one; I haven't thought about that.
Excellent point!
We knew about this back then. It was outrageous to me reading about this. It's the reason out children went to a private school. They taught cursive.
I have been walking around my neighborhood in the mornings and have had a few interactions with the kids waiting for the bus. I ask them "Do they teach cursive writing in school?" To a person they say the same thing, the third grade teaches you how to trace cursive letters and then have you practice. After the third grade the kids are no longer taught how to write in cursive or even use penmanship. I asked the local School Superintendent whether or not the school system teaches and used cursive. He said emphatically, "YES, we do teach cursive through all grades". I then thought, yea, what a lame answer. He lied to my face and didn't even blink an eye. Lots and lots of tax payers are tired of this guy yet nothing can be done to remove him. The fight continues, though.
I homeschooled for many years...taught phonics and cursive writing. We utilized brain gym and the practice of a sideays figure 8 (infinity) actually balances the left/right brain and helps to be the basis for achieving the flow of all the cursive letters. The video correctly points out the advantages to the brain of writing in cursive...the video also points out it is no longer required core curriculum in public schools...it amazes me how they absolutely destroy everything they get their hands on...
You can "think" whatever you want...I believe there is more to this that has been researched than you would like to believe...so I am certainly not going to argue with you...think and believe whatever you want...but here is an article that may shed some light on the issue...read it or not...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain
Psychology studies are of a highly dubious nature though, as are most of the 'soft' sciences. Reproducibility and replication of study results have been extremely difficult in the past decades because of the loose nature of these fields, and given that replication is core to science as a whole, it's questionable to point at a pop-science magazine summary of a paper and claim it as 100% truthful to the real world.
From the article...
"A new EEG-based study by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) reaffirms the importance of "old-fashioned" cursive handwriting in the 21st-century's Computer Age."
Makes it seem that EEG's would be able to authenticate results....
No, it doesn't, and if you had read the study, they are very clear:
"Existing literature suggests that such oscillatory neuronal activity in these particular brain areas is important for memory and for the encoding of new information and, therefore, provides the brain with optimal conditions for learning."
They are making the assumption based off prior literature that certain brain wave patterns might be linked to increased learning. They are very non-commital with the suggests and unclears that they do not have solid proof that it does effect learning.
You are taking coulds, mights, and possiblies, and turning it into does and will. Additionally, just like I had pointed out, a single study of 24 people, with not crystal clear results, does not make for a reproducible, reflective of the entire population study.
I understand what you are saying and they are valid points...I am just curious if there is any other research that has clearer results...either way it appears there "could" be advantages to learning cursive and it boils down to preference in the end...it makes me wonder if other countries writing systems have a cursive/printing option. It truly seems like cursive is an elevated form of writing. Plus the article was comparing writing vs. tablets/computers. Overall any writing appears to be a better brain function...
Back in my native country Brazil we had cursive since day ONE and along my schools years the teachers always demanded us to have a good handwriting or we would have our grades reduced. Now I see the American education system calling handwriting obsolete and archaic also they say it's too difficult for kids to understand. It is mind boggling such BS excuse. If kids in a third world country in falling apart schools can why kids in the richest county in the world cannot? Are American kids dumber? I refuse to accept this and yes my kids are going to learn cursive.
Are American kids dumber?
as an american, I think they are now
By design. Just look at Randi Weingarten holding the Ukrainian flag upside down at the teacher's union meeting.
I think there's more to this than we understand. I had a trainer who was a handwriting analysis expert. You really would not believe what he could see with a couple of sentences written on a napkin. I saw him read people a dozen times to a jaw-dropping level. You just wouldn't believe it. If handwriting analysis can reveal an unbelievable amount of information about a person's character, desires, psyche, even past physical injuries... perhaps it could be true that cursive COULD do something for the brain, and learning specific ways of writing cursive could develop different attributes. Not the craziest thing I've heard that turned out to be true. I have a book called "Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life" by Vimala Rodgers. Interesting, is all I'm saying.
Thank you for your comments...I had never heard of that book but it does seem to be a more complex issue than many believe. It really is quite interesting...I agree...
I type around 172 WPM on my personal keyboard (reds), but I think much faster and I think too many things simultaneously to be able to type that fast, haha.
It is true that people are not learning to think, and the philosophy taught nowadays is a pale imitation of what it's supposed to be -- for malicious reasons no less.
At the least, cursive teaches discipline of thought and speech. When I type I'm in a hurry to get words on a page with the understanding that I can go back to edit at anytime.
Pen on paper forces an economy of expression. No one would present a poem to a lover with words scribbled out and with arrows and editing marks on it. Errors of thought or expression require the work of additional drafts to present a document that others take seriously. It's better to try to get it right the first time.
Many who type do try to edit their writing, but most probably don't, as evidenced by the verbal diarrhea on social media.
Just from personal experience, writing something down, cursive or printing, helps me to remember it. My cursive is more legible than my printing just because we were made to practice it in grammar school until we got it right. The letters were always hung up around the classroom.
Considering the world as it is now, I will say, the most valuable course I had in high school was typing.
I am probably inclined to agree. Any benefit to training cursive would likely result from learning different languages and applying them as well.
It kind of comes across as an excuse to learn cursive as tradition dictates as well as to fully comprehend the Constitution and such, but I don't know that we need an excuse for those things.
It does help one master micro muscle movements. I heard that those who didn't learn to write cursive lack the muscle control to manipulate a small screw, like for eye glasses or some such.
Or financial education.
Schools need analytical thought and financial education.
I was told once that the schools quit teaching cursive so that the next generation wouldn’t be able to read the Constitution.
My Russian teacher pushed me to learn Russian cursive. He said adults write in cursive, and it is expected that candidates write in Russian on the language test for foreigners, which is necessary to get a job or attend university. I found a PDF of a children's workbook for Russian cursive and practiced for a few weeks and that was it.
My son told me they stopped teaching the kids in school how to write in cursive. I told him that they (him & his wife) better teach the kids at home then, he said they were.
Writing is good for the brain, PERIOD.
Cursive or not, translating thought to text with the hands is a brain intensive task.
I understand typing is worse than writing, but what style of writing doesnt matter.
But it does...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain
Read it. It literally says what I just said.
Doesnt say cursive is better than printing, but that writing is better than typing.
Ffs guys, cursive is the last thing we should be worried about. Children cannot even name who won the Civil War or who even fought in the Civil War.
This is insanely retarded, you don't need cursive for a signature, who the fuck told anyone that?
A good article to educate yourself...BTW...did you bother to watch the video to see what was said about a signature?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain
My points stands regardless of an article. You do not need cursive for a signature, normal long hand isn't easier to imitate than cursive if that's what people are worried about.
I cannot think of any reason we need to write it.
There are 1,000 more important things we should be making children learn.
When you fill out papers and it says to print your name on one line and then asks for a signature on a second line...what is the distinction if there is no difference between the two?
There doesn't have to be...do you not know how signatures work or something?