Nana Mourns a Lost Art

Last week I substituted in a social studies class at the high school.  The teacher had left directions to watch a short video and have students write down fifteen facts.  Not a brilliant lesson plan, but the video was somewhat interesting and because there was accountability to produce notes, the students stayed on task. They were to turn in their notes at the end of the period.  I also wrote down facts during the video and we compared notes as a class.  I wrote my notes on the white board and a student said "Mrs., I can't read cursive."


My teacher-style cursive is easy to read, but more and more these days I have students telling me that they can't read it.  It used to be that only the students who had come to our schools from Mexico couldn't read or write cursive, but that's not the case now. Our students from Mexico usually wrote with clear block printing.  They had never been taught to write in cursive.

Recently there was a story on the news about schools abandoning the instruction of cursive writing.  Since so much writing is done on a keyboard, the thinking is that cursive writing is no longer a useful skill.  Based on my experience in the classroom, even if schools have not yet officially dropped cursive from the curriculum, many students have failed to learn this skill.

When I was first learning to write grants, I wrote them out longhand on yellow legal pads using a number 2 pencil.  I frequently found myself cutting up the pages and rearranging paragraphs.  It was difficult for me to make the transition from writing on a yellow pad to writing on a computer.  Now, years later, I do almost all my writing on the computer.  But, when I'm struggling with words, I frequently pull out the yellow pad and write out ideas.  There's something about the connection of pencil to paper that helps the words flow for me.  Cursive is so much faster than block printing.  When the words are flowing, I don't want to take the time to print.

I realize that there is only so much time in the instructional day, but I'm not sure that the instruction of cursive writing should be eliminated. 

But, maybe I'm experiencing a sentiment similar to what the blacksmiths felt when the automobile was introduced...and we know how that turned out.  Time moves on, things change, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.  I guess I'm settling in to my status as a senior and mourning the loss of the good ole days.