Should elementary schools be teaching handwriting?
I know that I'm an old fashioned person when I say that I like to write. I used to write all the time in elementary and in 3rd grade, they taught us to write in cursive in these little activity books where you would trace the lines until you could write normally. Eventually in 5th grade we learned to try to type and I hated it. Now, I'm typing this on a computer at an incredible rate. Technology is becoming advanced, so should we be still teaching handwriting or is it a lost cause?
I'm going to be honest with you guys, technology will eventually take over the need to actually write, but who knows how long that will take. It's one of the very first things that you actually learn in preschool/ kindergarten. You learn how to write the letters of your name, the rest of the alphabet, and numbers 1-10. You start writing from the age of 3-4 and you progress your spelling and grammar over time. Some like this better than others (myself compared to my friends). How you learn to read and write improves your language and how you communicate with others for the rest of your life. Cursive should at least be taught for a week or 2 as your signature is needed as you get older for legal documents. This is why I think we should be teaching handwriting.
To view this from another perspective, typing will eventually be the way all jobs work. Typing in schools are now taught as young as 4th grade. As boring as it was to take in 6th grade, this has helped myself along with every other student in school. Once you learn to adjust your fingers to the keys and how they work, you will be able to type at an incredible speed. Another reason we should be teaching kids how to write by hand is some kids will only rely on spellcheck instead of their own minds. If you don't know how to spell chair, orange, definitely, or weird without the help of a computer, you need help. While I prefer both methods, what do you think? Should elementary schools be teaching handwriting?
I'm going to be honest with you guys, technology will eventually take over the need to actually write, but who knows how long that will take. It's one of the very first things that you actually learn in preschool/ kindergarten. You learn how to write the letters of your name, the rest of the alphabet, and numbers 1-10. You start writing from the age of 3-4 and you progress your spelling and grammar over time. Some like this better than others (myself compared to my friends). How you learn to read and write improves your language and how you communicate with others for the rest of your life. Cursive should at least be taught for a week or 2 as your signature is needed as you get older for legal documents. This is why I think we should be teaching handwriting.
To view this from another perspective, typing will eventually be the way all jobs work. Typing in schools are now taught as young as 4th grade. As boring as it was to take in 6th grade, this has helped myself along with every other student in school. Once you learn to adjust your fingers to the keys and how they work, you will be able to type at an incredible speed. Another reason we should be teaching kids how to write by hand is some kids will only rely on spellcheck instead of their own minds. If you don't know how to spell chair, orange, definitely, or weird without the help of a computer, you need help. While I prefer both methods, what do you think? Should elementary schools be teaching handwriting?
Signed,
Midwestern Redhead
Perhaps we should rethink how schools introduce cursive writing. Cursive writing is not as utilitarian as it once was but there is certainly an art form connected to the process. Would it be best to teach cursive writing in the context of an art curriculum?
ReplyDeleteCalligraphy is considered an art form and when you really think about it, it's a very fancy way of writing cursive. A week learning cursive would not be that bad.
Delete