Please, pretty please, do not take cursive writing out of the curriculum. The world is growing more and more technologically based—true. Students will eventually cease to turn in written assignments—true. But please don’t take this skill away from the students.
40 out of the 50 U.S. states have already taken it away. They’ve adopted what is called the Common Core Curriculum. I went to the website to read up on it and I won’t lie, I read a paragraph of it at the most. I stopped because splattered all over the page were the words “standard” and “standardized”. It disgusted me Board of Education.
I did not birth a standardized child. My child is unique as are all of his peers. They deserve the gift of script. As a child, I could not WAIT to go to third grade so that I could learn to write in cursive.
To this day, my handwriting has a tendency to slip out of print and into cursive. It isn’t standardized; it’s uniquely my own. All of my poems, short stories, and novels are spilled from the tip of a pen prior to being typed into the computer as a finished product. That’s my style and that’s exactly what I tell my seven-year-old son when he asks his mama why she writes her L’s and S’s that way. I tell him that’s my style.
Don’t rob the children of this. Fortunately, I have the skill and knowledge to teach my son what his school will not. And don’t suggest private school either. I can’t afford it. You say that the reason you’re doing this is to devote more time to what matters—skills such as typing. How is it then that I graduated knowing how to write in print, cursive, and type 70 wpm?
My heart breaks for the students who have parents that either don’t know or don’t care. It breaks for the students that will adhere to your standards and become the senseless, standardized, fill-in-the-correct-bubble, robots that you desire them to be. Sit down? Okay, well thanks for listening nonetheless.