Should our schools instruct kids on the abacus? How about teaching them the proper method of formatting a floppy disk? Ridiculous, right? The modern world demands they learn skills that will help them become employable, self-sufficient adults who will eventually move out of your house so you can finally build that man cave — er … office — you’ve always wanted.
So it would seem to follow that it’s time to write off cursive writing as another relic. The beauty of the written word has been consigned to history, replaced by cold electronic typography. Yesterday’s hand-scrawled love letters have become today’s Snapchats. Time marches on, and the future becomes more legible.
Not so fast, says our latest poll at HeraldNet.com. After a recent bid in the state Legislature to mandate cursive writing instruction, we asked for your opinion on it. A whopping 67 percent said cursive should be required for all students. Just 29 percent said schools should be ordered not to waste time on it; and only 4 percent said to let teachers decide.
For those of us who are in the minority on this one, can someone explain what the rest of you are thinking? And please type your explanations – I don’t want to have to decipher anyone’s terrible penmanship. Are you fond of ink-stained fingers and cramped hands? Do you love the challenge of puzzling through something that looks like it’s written in code? Or do you enjoy the fact that no one can agree on what a capital F or Q should look like?
As a local elementary school principal wrote in a recent commentary in The Herald, schools have better things to teach: computer skills, problem-solving, math, music — pretty much anything other than beautiful handwriting.
The bill died quietly this year. Perhaps its supporters should have typed it.
— Doug Parry, parryracer@gmail.com; @parryracer
A recent study shows kids are worried their parents are overusing their smartphones. We want to know when you think smartphones should be put away.
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