Why do we still teach cursive to kids?!

[HighwayDragon]

Why oh why are children taught cursive handwriting? Especially from a young age where their handwriting is poor anyway, it's a massive waste of time and effort! My dd will be heading into year1 in September wibu to say that I don't think it's necessary at all, and completely archaic?

Add - I'm a TA in her school, most staff think it's ridiculous but we've got to teach them.

nur I block printed my exam to make sure it can be read consistently. I noticed a lot of my classmates don't write cursive. You can write very fast block printing. You do join up a bit, but the alphabet stays the same look as printed ones.

If you have terrible handwriting and a complete lack of fine motor skills, cursive is a complete pain. I will never ha e lively writing. But I have now got (basically) legible writing now I mix print and joins within a word. I was tested on ha d writing in SATs. It was awful.

What I meant is I stopped writing like the samples here
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive

A lot can't read it. Sticking with the same font look as printed is a lot safer.

I meant taught in ks1, before they can even print the letters properly

Children should not be taught to print letters. What is the point if they just have to unlearn it and then learn cursive. They should be taught cursive from the start. It's incredibly hard to change a child's style of handwriting once they have learned it the wrong way.

Printing is why some children have trouble with 'b' and 'd'. If you print them it's hard to remember which way round they go.

If you learn cursive writing they are completely different, 'd' starts like a 'c' and 'b' starts from the top like an 'l'. Both of them have a lead in and if a child is learning how to form a letter, they might as well learn how to do it properly.

That Wiki article says cursive is just any writing style in which letters are joined in a flowing style Dreamer - I thought it was a specific style...

I'm stunned anyone could write fast enough without joining letters in a flowing style of some sort, to get an A level or degree in an arts or humanities essay based subject.

Doesn't the muscle memory element of learning to spell also only really work when habitually using joined up handwriting of some kind?

I must say I hand write every day, even if only shopping lists or notes to my kids...

I am an English teacher and used to mark GCSEs. There are no marks for cursive in the exams - even the most illegible writers can gain top marks.

The only timed test I've heard of (done by John Holt, an educational theorist who was curios to see if cursive actually was faster) found that printing and cursive actually took the same time.and often cursive is harder to read compared to neat printing. I, myself, print and am a very fast handwriter - always had extra time left at the end of my exams and still came first in half of them at university.

I don't really see the value in cursive except if children want to learn it. My son is dyspraxic and I have had so much trouble getting him to write at all, I'd rather die than go all over it a second time.

typo - curious - before anyone jumps down my throat!

Why oh why would you object to them doing something like this? Just because so many people are barely able to write these days doesn't mean we should give up on children writing properly altogether!

You might as well say, sure why teach them how to add up in their heads, since everyone uses a calculator and its quicker? Just appreciate the skill and the fact that they are doing something properly, as they should learn.

My children have to work for several years to get their pen license in school, they need to have perfect cursive lettering in pencil before they get it and move on to a proper fountain pen. They come out of senior primary school with beautiful neat legible handwriting. Why would you want less for them?

Meh - no one knows how to weave or milk a cow nowadays either. Nice if you can, but kind of irrelevant...

Yes they do Mistle - my kids learnt to weave at Kindergarten (motor skills thing I think... or just because they all seem to like doing it...

(Wanders off irrelevantly)

Haha - well that looks nice anyway :)

I used to be against teaching children cursive writing at an early age, till I had a dyslexic ds. He really struggled with spelling and was constantly reversing letters. Then we found a wonderful specialist tutor who took his writing apart and put it together again, insisting that he wrote in cursive writing. It made all the difference, and in fact now his handwriting is quite a lot nicer than my other children's.

My DD (in year 3) was taught cursive from reception. By the end of year 1, her writing (cursive) was very clear, legible and neat. Then we moved and she changed schools- her new school doesn't let the children write cursive until year 4... So she was made to change the way she writes, to printing.

It was so annoying, she could write perfectly well, and had to relearn to write in a new way- to 'prepare' for cursive writing. The teachers didn't care that she could already do it- ridiculous! So now she prints, not very neatly!

Next term, she'll be re-learning cursive all over again...

Apart from this craziness, the school is lovely, and much better than her first in many ways, so we go along with it. Another(French) girl in her class arrived at the start of year 3 with the most beautiful French handwriting, it was gorgeous and very legible, neat etc. I gather they put a stop to that too, and made her print. Insanity.

That really is insane Tograpefruit

ici Yes, l was saying that up thread.
My son has dysgraphia.

lci sorry.

NurNoch isn't it just!

I only every write cursive, it is the most efficient way to write.

It is definitely useful, I'm glad I was taught it and my children will be taught too.

Children who don't write flowingly are at a disadvantage in the sort of exams that get you into university (arts subjects, politics, etc.). Why cut off a child from that by cutting off cursive early in life?

Really worrying social streaming!

Our primary school only teaches cursive, so both my children have learnt it from day one of reception. Schools opinion is that it takes longer to learn and look neat, but once they have learnt it looks better and is quicker. Also easier than teaching printing and then having to teach cursive again. My DD1 (Y2) and DS (YR) both have lovely cursive handwriting already far neater than mine

But I can both weave and milk a cow! And knit and crochet...

Meh - no one knows how to weave or milk a cow nowadays either. Nice if you can, but kind of irrelevant...

I can do both thanks, but I'm pretty sure children need to write more often than they need to milk a cow, so rather a bogus comparison.

I didn't say writing has no value (I'm an English teacher!) - I said a certain style of handwriting has no value other than perceived beauty - a very different thing!

Topgrapefruit - that's just ridiculous, isn't it? Why set children back once they can do something?!
When I was a child, I could read at 3, so before I started school. They started me off on Ladybird books but I outgrew them before the end of the first year; so they let me read what I wanted on the bookshelves. When I went to junior school, they started to try and put me back on Ladybird readers again - my parents put a stop to it.