AIBU just tell my son he doesn’t have to do cursive writing anymore?

[Snowyslope]

My son is 9 and in year 5 so his reception and year 1 of primary school were quite disrupted by the lockdowns, he was also at a less than great primary school which we have since pulled him out of. He is doing great at his new school in all areas, except his handwriting. He joins from the bottom and it makes his writing hard to read and in spelling tests for example the teacher can mark it wrong because sure it looks like a different letter, when actually he has spelt it correctly it’s just his handwriting is letting him down. An example of this would be joining a p from the bottom to the next letter making the look like a lowercase e. It also takes him a long time to write anything in cursive which effects how much he actually writes and wants to write and will hinder him in things like his SATS exams next year for example. We have tried until we’re blue in the face to get him to stop joining from the bottom but it was left unchecked when he was at his previous school and now it is just ingrained. My question is- what are the actual consequences of him not doing cursive writing at school? I know the school is desperate for all kids to do it but I really can’t see the benefit of it, it’s just massively slowing him down and making him hate writing even more and it’s also hard to read- I’m going to speak to his teacher about it this week, but before I do I’m just wondering what will happen if he just stops doing cursive writing? Would he be penalised in his SATs exams for example? If it’s just a case of that the school want him to do it and there’s no actual penalty for him not, I’m quite willing to battle over it. Thanks

I'm with you on not understanding the point of cursive. My son was badgered into writing cursive in primary, his work was unreadable and scruffy. He's now at seniors and writes how he likes. 🤷🏻‍♀️ strange thing for a school to waste time on in my opinion.

Writing cursive is supposed to be quicker, if it is slowing him down there is no benefit to him.
As an adult I write semi-cursive (some letters joined, some not). Never in the “real world” has anyone’s ability to do their job been judged on whether they write cursive or not. The important thing is getting the information on the page in a legible manner.

Unfortunately, I don’t know how this is judge in SATs exams.

Definitely, I’m relieved to hear they don’t care about that at secondary. The primary would get so much more work out of him if they just let him write as he naturally would.

Probably best to check with the school. I mean, for SATS I wouldn't even worry about what marks he gets. It's a pointless test.
Cursive writing is faster and I remember practicing for hours when I was younger. I still write in cursive but, honestly, aside from being complemented on my "beautiful" handwriting in adulthood, it made very little difference to my life. 99% of the time, I type anyway.

Talk to the school. I was forced to write in cursive and it was just an absolute slog, one of the real benefits to me of secondary school was that they no longer cared!

However, I think there's quite rigid imposed things on primary school teachers in terms of how they're allowed to judge ability, and that might be a factor influencing them.

I had this very conversation with my son's teacher at this age. My son could write beautifully until he tried to use cursive. I asked the teacher why they felt it was necessary in this day and age and as long as he can write isn't that all the matters? He agreed with me and said it was national curriculum but we agreed that he would turn a blind eye for my son going forward.

Unfortunately it's just another example of our of touch bureaucrats making ridiculous decisions and meddling in education instead of giving teachers autonomy.

Don't worry about it AT ALL. My son is now 18 and doing an amazing engineering apprenticeship at a high profile company. He did great on his GCSEs, too.

We’re in the same boat. Ds has the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen, until he has to join his letters up and then it’s really hard to read. We had a welcome meeting at his school recently and they said there is some kind of test at some point and if they can’t write cursive then they don’t pass. It’s a test that the government force on them and is absolute nonsense the school said but they have to do it. Possibly an end of year test? Hes year 4.

imagine being turned down for a law degree as an adult because you have all the right experience and grades but can’t write cursive. It’s so silly. FWIW, I never ever join my hand writing

Cursive is quicker (obviously only if done correctly and not in OPs sons case by the sounds of it). But thinking about having to pick your pen up off the paper after every letter and put it back down… over a single word it barely makes a difference. But over an essay in exam situation can make a difference. This is the logic at least of why they make kids do cursive. Plus with muscle memory they start young to ingrain it.

in OPs sons case it’s probably worth dropping it now as presumably he’ll get a better score by the examiner being able to read his writing than otherwise although might lose some in the handwriting… he’ll probably develop his own hybrid cursive and non cursive style. But he needs to break the p looking like e if he wants to succeed. Surely a chat with his teacher on how best to do this is needed.

If I could show you how awful my two sons writing was I'm sure you would be impressed. Every single parent/teacher meeting started with a comment about their writing.
I think writing skills are important and I am sure my boys lost marks in exams due to their writing but it didn't hold them back at uni or in their careers at all.

OP, my DS (now 13) uses a tablet with keyboard for all subjects and tests now, because his writing is illegible. He learnt cursive, which, no matter the effort, was illegible, then went to non-cursive, which deteriorated over time. The teachers said he couldn't lose his writing skills (ha), so he spent so much time and put so much effort into writing, and he still lost many points in tests because the teachers couldn't read it. Even DS had trouble reading his hand-writing. DS does have a combination of problems most likely contributing to the illegibility, and these are the reasons we could push for the use of a tablet in school. For the equivalent of SATs, there has been talk of him having to travel to another school to take them due to accommodation of assistive devices, but that is a long way off.

Cursive writing is very beneficial to the brain (have a google to find out why!)

However, one of my ds was dyspraxic (he still is but he has left school now)

and he was allowed to continue printing until high school when he switched to a keyboard.

As a teen though, he kicked off against this support and developed a nice cursive style all his own which he still uses now.

He used the keyboard for exams though.

So - i am partly with you - if it is a stressful struggle, keyboard is way.

But, the action of learning cursive improves motor skills, focus, all all sort.

Which is why schools promote it

My DD never got a pen licence at primary she was devastated! She went to secondary and is doing well in top sets etc I cannot understand the point of it tbh.

Secondary don't care.

I very strongly disagree with cursive being pushed too early. I firmly believe that more time should be spent on neat, clear letters first. Could you go back to basics with him and reward him for it? Does he like art? Get him to draw a large letter and turn it into
a picture. If he sees the attraction of making it pleasing to look at, it may change his view of writing.

I feel your pain! My son is the same, can print fine but struggles with cursive. So many conversations with teacher about how important cursive is and the bloody national curriculum yet the amount of teachers NOT using cursive when writing/marking in books is insane! I don't bother anymore, he's hardly going to fail in life because he doesn't write in cursive. As long as it's legible, who cares?

I'm with you - I have a yr 5 ds and if I'm honest I can't read anything he writes which is not great.

He always writes so small so it's just a spaghetti of letters. Another one devastated by not having a pen license as well.

I'm going to have a chat with his teacher at parents evening about it so I'd definitely bring it up if you can.

Ah the pen license! I forgot about that. I remember my eldest being quite anxious to get it, my son is fortunately a lot more laid back about school achievements, hopefully he won’t be bothered by it too much. Thanks for all your replies, I will speak to his teacher and explain I’d like him to just write as comfortably and quickly as he can, whether that’s print or a hybrid of cursive. The important thing is that he writes in the way that makes it less of a chore for him.

Please sit down with him and show him some simple top joins before you give up. Joining incorrectly is worse than no joins.
The thing about handwriting is it needs a lot of practice, like hours and hours. Please have a look at Jarman for clear, simple joins, and buy a handwriting book for a guide.

'buy a handwriting book for a guidelines'

Everything is on computers now anyway; it is a very different world. They make dc feel awful for his handwriting in year 3. I tell him some of the most intelligent people have messy handwriting, eg, doctors, dentists. He is an amazing, and fast typer, and good at reading, and spelling. The writing is legible, just not neat. They're trying to get them to join up, and he doesn't want to. It's a bit daft and ironic considering the teachers pushing this have large spaced out, curved handwriting!

So from what I understand he will loose points in SATS for non cursive writing - hence primary pushing it. However if he is likely to loose more on his spelling because it is not readable then that is a lost argument.

Secondary do not care. However he writes so long as he gets it down. (And if he still struggles with speed he can use a laptop!)

What I would do is talk to the teacher, ditch the cursive for now, let him concentrate on learning the spelling / writing etc. Then maybe in 6 months when he's forgotten the bad habits perhaps try and teach him cursive from the beginning. If that doesn't work ditch it again. Noone beyond his yr6 teacher will care!

Cursive was the end of legible writing for my DC and now in year 10 manages with CAPITALS throughout and has permission to type too as otherwise his teachers can not mark the work

Ugh... I totally agree with you OP. My DS is 8, has struggled a lot with handwriting and the school are completely obsessed and inflexible, insisting on cursive. The whole precursive thing they had to learn with lead-in's and outs and funny little squiggles everywhere has confused the heck out of him and I actually believe has held him back in learning basic letter formation and letter recognition.

I was never taught cursive. At 9 my writing was totally unconnected and not especially neat. We were also not taught spelling or punctuation!
I started writing cursive of my own accord aged about 11, last year of primary school.
I went on to get A* for both English GCSEs so it clearly didn't do any harm!

I was always in so much trouble for my messy handwriting and got told they would take marks off me in my GCSEs if they couldn't read it properly.

So I started writing in block capitals. My writing was then neat and clear to read and they told me I would lose marks because I'd run out of time. So I learned to do it quicker. They still bitched and moaned.

For what its worth, I still write in block capitals 30 years on and it's never stopped me getting a job or a qualification.