cursive vs printing By Cathy-Dee

First I do agree that there's a good chance the students do know how to read cursive writing, etc., but it is more work for them and they may simply be trying to avoid work. It's amazing at what they will try to pull when there is a substitute in the class. At this time cursive writing is still a part of the curriculum (or at least most of the curriculums I've seen), so it is supposed to be taught.

If you are at a school where it does not seem to be covered, you could perhaps ask the Principal as a matter of your own curiousity about cursive writing and the curriculum. Then you could mention that students were saying they couldn't read cursive writing and you didn't know whether they were telling the truth or not. This at least opens the door to conversation and you will find out if indeed the kids were pulling your leg or not. If however cursive writing is not being emphasized, the principal might check into this further as well.

As far as the importance of cursive writing (which is quite different from a signature) it is important for students to at least be able to read cursive writing. As far as being able to write in the cursive style, it is becoming less important but not necessarily a thing of the past. I myself mainly print rather than do handwriting, I teach in the primary grades where all we do is print. And if I can type I prefer that even more. But cursive writing is almost an art-form and I think is at least beneficial for students to know how to do and how to read. As one person pointed out not everyone has access to computers at home. And there are still quite a number of people, magazines, books, articles, even TV credits, etc., that use handwriting. And we often see things go back (the 70's or the 50's, whole language, phonics, etc., so who knows, perhaps handwriting will also make a comeback in future years).

As far as the importance of learning how to print in upper and lower case - this is taught in kindergarten and in grades 1 and 2 primarily. And by learning to print in lower case it also helps the children to learn to recognize the lower case alphabet. Learning is progressive. We need to start with the basics and learn them progressively through the years.

And as far as cursive writing being time-consuming for students - this is only true if handwriting is done once and awhile within the classroom setting. I know people who can handwrite a note twice as fast as I can print a note. Practice will speed things up. So if students start in grade 3 and do a lot of handwriting for the next 3 or 4 years, they will be faster at handwriting overall.