Are your children learning cursive writing and at what age?

[oregonjen]

My daughter learned cursive in 3rd grade, but in 4th, still used print. She is in 6th grade (middle school) and still writing in print. I asked her if a majority of her friends are using cursive writing and she said no. So, I thought I would ask you guys when your children are learning to write in cursive and when do they switch over from print to cursive on their homework?

[SarahB]

1. My 4th grader learned cursive last year.

He "has to" write in cursive this year. I think same for my 6th grader (but his school has laptops and they do a lot over the computer too). It's a non-issue as a requirement at this point for my 10th grader.

[oregonjen]

3. Part of it has to do with the computer

A lot of her homework is done on the computer, so that eliminates all of the handwriting.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. They should take every fucking computer out of elementary schools.

No reason for them.

Teach the kids to write and read first, then let 'em use computers for writing papers in high school.

Little makes me more sick to my stomach than to go into an elementary school and see the computer room where the kids learn to do PowerPoint for their presentations and other ignorant, uneccessary, god-awful things.


(except for the ones that the administration uses - no computers for kids)

[JVS]

8. I rememeber typing papers on a real typewriter. Some kids had computers but my family was old scholl

My brother even hired a neighborhood girl to type up his senior theme in HS because we had no computer. He gave her the manuscript.

[SarahB]

9. He's in middle school,

I'd agree that younger students need to learn writing first and foremost, but he's a relatively advanced student who's got that down fairly well (has tested as "gifted", but some people dislike that term here I know:eyes:). I'm comfortable with this as an additional tool. My daughter is in 10th grade and after attending the same school for middle school, was light years ahead of her peers in terms of computer literacy and essay writing.

My younger ones do very little on computers in their elementary schools. :shrug:

[AlCzervik]

2. 3rd grade here as well. She's in 7th now and only her English homework has to be done in cursive.

[alphafemale]

4. Now that I think about it - when is cursive writing used anymore?

Personal letters and greeting cards?

Most communications is by computer.

And printing is preferable in any instances where it's important not to have to decipher someone's strangled scratches or excessive flourishes.

[NightWatcher]

6. only for signatures. I havent seen or used it in years

[pitohui]

11. yes it's only used for signatures

once the kid knows the basics of how to sign her name, that's all she needs to know, anything she's going to be writing at length will be printed out

even in the 70s i had a teacher who was freaked that i didn't own a typewriter, even tho i had nice clear handwriting at the time (not any more, you lose the ability with age)

technology has passed on, do we teach our kids how to use a buggy whip?

[JVS]

7. I learned it in 2nd grade. We covered a letter each week

We were expected to use each letter that we had learned how to do on cursive in writing whenever it came up. This resulted in every 2nd grade paper being a weird blend of print and cursive

[malta blue]

10. M y daughter learned in 2nd grade and then

we switched school and they are making her do the SAME book over again in 3rd grade :mad:

She uses cursive when she writes stories, but prints her schoolwork.