Who Needs Practical Skills?
I found a link to this article in a message board thread asking if anyone still used cursive in their daily lives. Reading the 43 replies before mine, I was saddened to learn that most people do not, or they use a self-described hybrid of cursive and lettering for their handwritten notes. I was disheartened to learn that Indiana is not the only state that has stopped teaching the skill, and that many teachers are prohibited from using cursive on their "chalk" boards because their 6th to 12th grade students cannot read it.
The question that was raised on the message board, that was not raised in the article, is "what are these children going to do if they have to do research on historical materials?" What if they need to read handwritten journals or historic documents? And that is a good question. We are teaching them to interpret the Constitution, but not to be able to read the original document.
We have lowered acceptable standards to the point that we are turning out functionally illiterate adults. What good does it do to teach students to type 45 words per minute, when they are no doubt learning that on their own, even if on their own they are using a hybrid of hunt-and-peck and proper typing techniques? I use a combination of typing techniques and was tested at more than 45 words per minute in 1996. I am sure my 14 years as a legal secretary only improved my rate. But knowing where the question mark is or which finger should hit the 6 on a standard keyboard, did not help me read the handwritten edits my bosses made on the drafts I handed them. It did not help me decipher the ever-worsening chicken-scratch cursive of my boss' timesheets. Keyboarding skills made the typing easy, but alone, they would not have gotten any of the time entered.
We, as a nation, have decided that our children do not need to learn the things we, the adults, did. We are spoon-feeding them the answers to standardized tests, without regard for their actual education. Real life is more than the Scantron, fill-in-the-bubble-tests. Real life does not come with multiple choice questions where the smart people can immediately discard at least two of the four options. Real life is cursive essay questions. Failing to give our children the skills for success in real life is yet one more nail in the coffin of the future. And when they grow to adults and ask who has failed to prepare me? The answer must be a resounding "We, your parents and grandparents, did."
I was told to stop using cursive on my notes at work - I think I was the only one who still used it. Apparently they had trouble reading it.
ReplyDeleteI think that kids today don't use cursive because they mostly communicate via text. No one writes real letters anymore and kids don't even text real English. I personally refuse to text in text jargon. But I've heard that this nonsense is even leaking into essays and tests at school. I shutter at the day when we've whittled our complex and rich language down to a handful of nonsensical abbreviations.
Although I will admit - I cannot type.