Cursive writing at 4 years of age !! Am I right to be annoyed?

[3catstoo]

Hi,
My dd1 is 4. She started school in Sept. At our local school they like the children to start using cursive writing from day one. For ds1 last year this was not a problem as he was 5. However dd1 is not finding it easy. This does not worry me in the slightest, I think they are far too young to pressure.
dd has been getting spellings since finishing her word pot words. She has to learn 5 a week and write them as part of a sentence dictated by the teacher. Her spelling is good verbally but she still struggles with some letters when writing.
Today she got her spellings correct but the teacher had written a note saying "From now on even if dd1 gets the spelling right but fails to use cursive writing they will be marked as incorrect. She will continue to get the same set until she uses cursive writing".
I am still really angry about this 3 hrs later.
Surley a spelling test should be just that. I am proud of dd for being able to spell the words in the first place and to write them down with the letters the right way around in a legible form. Why a 4 year old is being pressued into cursive writing I fail to understand.
Am I justified in saying something to the teacher (not my favourite person at the best of times)?
This seems to be the only school around here that uses cursive writing from Reception.
Any advice would be gratefully received.

that is what I thought, singersgirl. they learn it in their "penmanship" classes as far as i had gathered (from reading snoopy cartoons).

the spanish use that funny copperplate-esque style too. it's blimmin hard to read, never mind write.

we had to write out entire alphabet, lower & upper case, and date before each lesson. we did those funny 'r's that have a loop at the top

SP cursive isn't actually joined up - it's letters with tails on the beginning and the end so that theoretically, when you come to doing joined up writing, you just join the tails to make the words - like \link{http://www.englefield-green.surrey.sch.uk/learning/literacy.html\this}

Oh well that's even sillier then. those poor 4 yr olds!

I must admit, I'd never heard of it until dd started school!

my school (many many moons ago) tried to teach us italic handwriting from age 4.... my writing was considered so bad i had to go early every morning for special practice for ages... which i really hated and made me feel punished. my writing now is truly awful (to point of being real handicap) as totally illegible (often even to me!). do think way we were "taught" v unhelpful and counterproductive. my ds's go to lovely laid back boho school... not at all pushed and now (8 and 6) have better writing than me...

Jeeze! I didn't learn to write joined up, or even cursive until 8!

Yes I was about 9 when I learned proper joined up writing. It was a different style though. I was taught that there are some letters that you don't join, like s, I would never join something after an s, p was the same, I'm sure there were more than that too.
Now I seem to be writing more cursive style just because I think I should be setting ds (and dd in time) a good example. I have to really think about it though. Still don't know how to do a cursive x without taking my pen off the page !!! If I'm struggling at 31 how must a 4 yr old feel ?! I guess it helps to start of with it and not have to re learn.
Galt do a childrens cursive handwriting book, which I bought thinking it would help. The trouble is that it only has the curls/flicks at the end of the letter and not the start. So actually it is not true cursive writing.
We'll get there in the end with or without the teachers support.

The plot thickens...
Me again.
Yesterday dd came home and got upset with me because she wanted to do her spellings like all the other children in the class. The others either did spellings or pot words but she did nothing. She said "Mrs X said I can't do spellings anymore because Mummy doesn't want me to. "
Well that was like showing a red rag to a bull !!!
What utter rubbish.
I have since found out that another boy in the class has been moved onto year 1 pot words because his writing is too big for him to do spellings. Is this not just avoiding the issue yet again?
His mother isn't happy about it either.
I am going to make an appt to see the deputy head. I was waiting to see what happened on spelling day this week, yesterday. Now I am full of butterflies and am shaking at the thought of speaking to the deputy. I hate these situations.
I'm so annoyed that I feel like withdrawing dd from school until year 1 in Sept. Cutting off my nose to spite my face I know but when dd said all she did was play and read and the other children got to other things I just thought she can do that at home and learn more. Yes there is the social aspect and I probably wouldn't have a leg to stand on but I'm just so furious.
Sorry I'm ranting again.......

Oh FFS another boy can't do spellings becasue his writing is too BIG WTF.

Go straight to the head, she is a rubbish teacher :)

What on earth has the size of his writing got to do with his spellings? And shouldn't children go onto Y1 pot words when they are ready to read them regardless of how big their writing is? Sounds shocking to me and I would be fuming.

I am very nervous about making a fuss but sometimes you have to. Maybe you should go to the head, if you have talked to the teacher about it again. Maybe you can phrase it in a "bit concerned about the handwriting policy" way.

3cats, sorry to hear this latest load of absolute crap from this teacher - I'm sending you lots of virtual support over the airwaves and I hope your meeting with the Deputy Head goes well. Just feel strong and confident - because you are right and this teacher is wrong!!!

I would say don't try to justify yourself, don't even say too much to try and explain the situation - just state the facts and ask what he / she is going to do about it. I don't think there's any harm in telling the DH that you have got as far as considering taking your DD out of school until Yr 1 just so she doesn't have to take this awful approach.

I'll be watching to see how it goes, very very best of luck to you x

3 cats too- you are understandably very angry and upset.
Try to go into your meeting calmly with an idea of your desired outcome. ask the dephead to talk you through the whole school's appraoch to the teaching of cursive writing. Ask her about the sorts of activites the children are given in the foundation stage to help them develop the necessary fine motor skills. check that what she is saying is whole school policy is what your dd's teacher is doing.
Ask her to put down in writing the next learning step for your dd with regard to her cursive writing- in simple language. So it might be to form all the letters c o a g d b correctly for instance.
Explore the linking of spelling and cursive writing and see if she can persuade you of the class's teacher's need to link them. Try to find a solution to the issue so that you come out of it feeling more positive and not having jst moaned about the teacher.
good luck

Well I had a call from the deputy head to arrange a time to meet. She wanted to know what it was about so that she could prepare. I told her everything, in a nice way so as not to put the teacher down. She didn't really comment. I am meeting her next Wednesday morning. No doubt by then she will have spoken to the teacher in question. So I shall have an interesting week waiting for Mrs X to approach me about it.
I said I wanted to know the school policy on spellings and cursive writing and wanted to know where to go from here. I said that if my 4 yr old is upset and not getting the right start then there is no point in her being there. The deputy head replied with "quite". Hopefully she understands. She is an easier person to talk to and seems like a good mediator.
Watch this space.
Thanks for all of the encouragement and support, it is very much appreciated.

Let us know how you get on.

yes I'll be interested to know. Robinpud, I liked your post, much more constructive than mine! I just get so angry about FOUR year olds being under this sort of pressure....It's awful. i know what 3cats means - you must just want to take kids home away from all this, it's not necessary.

In all honesty, I was taught to write cursive/joint writing before any formal schooling. From the age of 3 I could read, write (in both cursive and non cursive), started learning violin and spoke another language fluently. Complaining about this kind of thing instead of telling your kid to get on with it teaches them it's OK to not try hard. Better to try hard and fail multiple times than to give up entirely. The earlier they learn this, the better they do in life.

Don't listen to anyone saying it's outrageous that they are being taught this kind of thing. Be thankful they are. Only those that seem bothered by this don't understand the positive effect it has on a young mind from a developmental perspective.

As this child is now 21, they have probably long stopped worrying about this!