Saturday, January 04, 2020

Time to embrace cursive again By Tom Purcell


Source: https://www.njherald.com/opinion/20190206/time-to-embrace-cursive-again

Feb 6, 2019

While organizing my home office a few weeks ago, I came across a letter my grandfather wrote back in 1924.

He wrote that eloquent letter to his best friend's wife, consoling her on the loss of her mother. His cursive handwriting was artful -- perfect penmanship.

He wrote the letter when he was 21. Since he died at 34, when my father was only 3, it is among the most cherished items I have from a grandfather I never got to meet.

Such is the power of the handwritten letter, an art that has died along with the art of cursive handwriting.

You see, many American schools have phased out lessons in cursive. There is a waning need for it in the modern era, some argue, and the classes take too much time.

Cursive originated centuries ago. It's the result of technological innovations such as inkwells and quill pens made from goose feathers.

Because ink dripped when the quill was lifted from the paper, it made sense to connect letters in words together in one flowing line -- and the art of cursive writing began.

Cursive became less necessary with the invention of the ballpoint pen, which does not leak and, technically, does not require cursive writing.

Changing technology, which led to electronic documents completed on computers, has also contributed to less need for handwritten signatures.

As a result, millions of younger Americans have not been taught cursive penmanship. But that's being rethought by no small number of educators.

Fourteen states have passed laws mandating that students become proficient in cursive writing.

Proponents of cursive argue that it must be taught for several practical reasons.

How can someone who can't read cursive read and appreciate a handwritten note from Grandma -- or original, historic documents such as the U.S. Constitution?

Proponents also argue that students who take notes using longhand, rather than a keyboard, are more likely to master subjects.

In Psychology Today, William Klemm, a senior professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, argues that cursive writing "helps train the brain to integrate visual, and tactile information, and fine motor dexterit. ... To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the fingers. You have to pay attention and think about what and how you are doing it. You have to practice. Brain imaging studies show that cursive activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding."

There are other important reasons to carry on the art of cursive handwriting -- and the art of the handwritten letter.

When was the last time you received a handwritten letter? The last time you wrote one?

Is there anything more wonderful than opening your mailbox to find an envelope with your name and address, and a friend or family member's name and return address, handwritten on it?

I hate to admit it, but the last time I received such a letter was years ago, when my sisters and I sent our newly retired parents on a trip to Florida. Each day that week, our mother wrote a letter and mailed it to one of us.

She and my father both have impeccable penmanship. Her letters look more like art than a form of communication. My sisters and I spent hours sharing those letters and laughing out loud.

We still have those letters, and they still make us laugh out loud.

That's the power of a letter handwritten in cursive.

•••

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist, syndicated by Cagle Cartoons Inc. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.



N.J. bill would require students to learn cursive in schools

Source: https://6abc.com/5733015/



December 4, 2019

TRENTON, New Jersey -- A New Jersey lawmaker has introduced a bill requiring elementary schools in the state to teach students how to read and write in cursive by the end of third grade.

Cursive was dropped as a requirement under Common Core standards in 2010.

Many schools across the region opt not to include cursive in their curriculum.

"In some cases, children are entering middle school without knowing how to sign their own name in cursive," Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Hudson), who introduced the bill, said in a statement. "We are doing our children a disservice by not teaching them a vital skill they will need for the rest of their lives."



The legislation would apply to the first full school year following the date of enactment. It now heads to the Assembly Education Committee for review.

McKnight cites nearly two dozen states that have made efforts to reintroduce cursive in schools.

In 2017, Illinois lawmakers passed legislation mandating cursive.

Starting earlier this year, Ohio required the Department of Education to include supplemental instructional materials in cursive handwriting.

Next school year, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, for language arts will have students start learning cursive letters in second grade.



"Our world has indeed become increasingly dependent on technology, but how will our students ever know how to read a scripted font on a word document, or even sign the back of a check, if they never learn to read and write in cursive?" said McKnight. "This bill will ensure every young student in New Jersey will have this valuable skill to carry with them into adulthood."



A Defense of Cursive, From a 10-Year-Old National Champion: Edbert Aquino is a national handwriting champion from New Jersey, where a lawmaker wants all public schools to teach the skill again. By Tracey Tully

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/nyregion/cursive-writing-nj.html

Dec. 17, 2019


Edbert Aquino, 10, won a national competition for his cursive writing. Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

A fifth grader in New Jersey is a master of curlicues and connecting loops. His technique is so good he was named a state and national champion of a dying art: cursive writing, a skill that once seemed destined to go the way of the typewriter.

The boy, Edbert Aquino, who is 10, took home last year’s national trophy, $500 and bragging rights for his Roman Catholic elementary school in Bergen County.

But competition for the prize might just get stiffer in New Jersey.

Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, a Democrat from Jersey City, has introduced legislation that would require public schools to again teach a skill that had been phased out across the country, but is now enjoying something of a revival.

Like many students in New Jersey, Ms. McKnight’s son had never been taught cursive writing. Tasks she considers fundamental were beyond him: autographing a yearbook; endorsing a check; signing an application.

So she bought a workbook and taught him at home. “I wanted him to be able to sign his name,” she said. “It’s a life skill.”

The proliferation of computers and screens, coupled with the advent of rigorous Common Core standards and new demands on teachers, had led to a gradual disappearance of cursive instruction across the nation. In New Jersey, public schools have not been required to teach handwriting since 2010.

To many people who recall being berated for their illegible writing, the disappearance of cursive is nothing to lament.


The Academy of Our Lady of Grace is among the small number of schools in New Jersey that still teach cursive writing. Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

“As an exercise, writing things by hand is up there with cobbling shoes and shoeing horses,” a columnist, Alexandra Petri, wrote in 2012 in The Washington Post.

“Why is the world so cruel?” Christopher Borrelli, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, wrote last year.

“My thoughts turned to the children, the poor darlings, who must be scared and confused now, wondering what they did to tick off the gods of education,” he wrote. “They can’t have cupcakes in class, but they can have cursive.”

In spite of the ample fodder it has provided humor writers, teachers may end up getting the last laugh.

Kathleen Wright, who worked for Zaner-Bloser, a company that publishes cursive workbooks and sponsored the national competition, said 24 states now required some form of cursive instruction, including seven that had adopted policies since 2013.

“After they got rid of handwriting, now they’re all rediscovering it,” Virginia Berninger, a retired University of Washington professor who has conducted research on the ways children learn when using print or script. “People mistakenly assumed because we had computers, we didn’t need handwriting. We need both.”

Putting a pencil or pen to paper helps form an impression in a child’s brain and is beneficial for early literacy, regardless of whether the letters are printed or written in script, Professor Berninger said. But her studies have shown a connection between the linked letters in cursive writing and improved spelling proficiency.

“We think those connecting strokes help children link the letters into word units, which helps their spelling,” she said. Handwriting, she said, also allows children to write fluidly and quickly, which can lead to longer stories and essays.

Edbert, who was declared a national winner as a third grader, said that when he does use cursive, he is forced to slow down, which allows his ideas to flow more freely and helps with creativity. “If I’m, like, handwriting it, I just tend to write better,” he said.

Still, even Edbert said he would prefer to use a computer (and spell-check) for long assignments. “I can type faster than I can write,” he said.


Despite his handwriting skills, Edbert says “I can type faster than I can write.” Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

New Jersey school districts still have the option of teaching cursive, according to the state School Boards Association, which has not taken a position on Ms. McKnight’s bill. And an informal survey done in 2012 by the association found that many schools still did.

To enter the nationwide competition among third graders, Edbert and his classmates wrote a sentence that contained every letter in the alphabet, known as a pangram: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Filomena D’Amico, the principal of Edbert’s school, the Academy of Our Lady of Grace in Fairview, said students practiced printing or handwriting immediately after lunch. “It calms the students down,” Ms. D’Amico said. “They unwind.”

Tamara Plakins Thornton, a professor of history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said this was not the first time in the country’s history when schools had turned with renewed interest to cursive writing, which she considered obsolete.

Professor Plakins Thornton, who wrote the book “Handwriting in America: A Cultural History,” said the pendulum tended to swing back toward cursive instruction during times of cultural upheaval. She pointed to the early 1900s, with its influx of immigrants, and the 1960s, when America was roiled by the antiwar movement and the sexual revolution, as two of the biggest heydays for cursive instruction.

“Cursive — it’s all about following rules,” she said. “Whenever the present looks scary and the future looks worse, we tend to want to go running back to the past.”

She added, “It’s a countercultural rebellion. I think it’s a conservative backlash against cultural change.”

Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee have all passed legislation since 2013 requiring the instruction of handwriting, Ms. Wright said.

The proposed legislation faces an uncertain future in New Jersey, where teachers are already asked to help children reach greater levels of proficiency in core subjects like English.

“Teachers are inundated with so much to get through,” said Shannon Keogh, who has taught third and fourth grade in public schools in Orange, N.J., and now teaches math in the district. “To add another thing — that kids are really never going to use — is kind of silly.”

“The signature,” Ms. Keogh, a mother of four, added, “is probably going to be a thing of the past by the time our kids will ever sign a mortgage.”

But Ms. Knight believes cursive instruction could still be interwoven into the English or history classes, and would not take away significant time from academic instruction.

At Our Lady of Grace, Ms. D’Amico said assignments are sometimes done on computers, and turned in electronically, while others must be written in cursive and turned in on paper, forcing students to unplug.

“We can disconnect them for a bit from the technology,” she said. “I think it’s a healthy combination.”

Edbert is hoping to become a doctor — in spite of his perfect penmanship.

“They have to write out their observations, and they have to do it in a time crunch. So it can get a little messy,” he said. “I’ll try to write neatly so my patients can understand.”

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

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