Death of Cursive
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A couple weeks back, the topic of cursive writing was brought up twice in one week. One of the blogs I read mentioned it in passing in a blog post and then later, a blog reader mentioned it in a comment on one of my blog posts which had a bit about using AI to transcribe cursive. All this reminded me that I have fully changed my thoughts on teaching cursive writing in school in the matter of just a year or two.
A year ago, I felt that school not teaching cursive writing anymore was a travesty of a major order. We were going to bring up an entire generation of kids who couldn't read documents of the past or even present as there are many who still write in cursive daily. I am one of those people. But a thing called Artificial Intelligence started making a splash and now I can't think of a good excuse to continue teaching kids cursive writing.
The biggest reason for my changed viewpoint is AI itself which can easily ready cursive writing and spit it out in typed English if you want or Japanese characters too. I have no doubt that soon, if not already, one can just pull out their computer masquerading as a cellphone and point it at any document and it will translate whatever you are looking at it real time into whatever format you desire. Quickly teaching out kids to write and read cursive seems much the same as teaching them to write and read Latin, which our schools used to do and no longer do. It sort of seems pointless unless you want to be a scholar who studies Latin... or cursive writing.
Another reason has been just watching my kids go through life. When I grew up, writing was such an integral part of it but now not so much. I rarely see my kids write anything anymore. Their preference is to type or merely send some sort of emoji character through their personal computer masquerading as a cellphone. My eldest, a chip off the old block, has been keeping a journal for maybe the last year and does write in it but I don't see it. She also prefers print to cursive which she rarely is forced to read unless trying to read something I write to her. Other than that, all her notes that she takes in college is all done digitally. Gone are the days of notebooks full of notes that I churned out in college. My youngest likely also writes occasionally and has the most beautiful cursive writing I have ever seen (she learned cursive only because she attended a private Catholic elementary school instead of our local public school that doesn't teach it) but rarely applies it to anything other than signing her name on her homework. Any assignments requiring writing sentences is done on computers and various programs.
So in the last year, I have done a one-eighty on my beliefs of this subject. Cursive writing is just another dead language like Latin and Sanskrit. I'll miss it but the world will continue on without it long after this reader and writer of cursive is gone and buried.
I was going to blog about this. Kids still have to 'write' exams, and I have learned that they print and not write. I can't imagine.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking from my kid's perspectives, they do not have to "write" on exams. All their exams are done online and have been for some time. The only exception is for classes like math or physics where numbers and equations are written down and there anyway, I think printing was and still is the norm versus cursive.
DeleteIt still makes me sad. Plus, I've seen studies that writing by hand (whether printing or in cursive) is integral for helping to develop certain areas of the brain. I'll admit I keep certain lists in the notes on my phone, but I still like to make handwritten lists.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I now agree with no longer wasting resources teaching cursive in schools, I am sad at the loss just like I am of many things that I got to experience that my kids will only read about.
DeleteFor some reason my latest post didn't update in anyone's sidebar.
DeleteIt seems to be pretty wide spread. I’m having to go check sites to look for new posts.
DeleteI don't know how I feel about teaching cursive. In a packed curriculum, it's the first to go. As an older person, I want to hold on to the past a bit more than I should.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you now anyway. We are continually falling behind on a global scale in core areas of reading and math and one way to fix that is to devote more time teaching those subjects at the expensive of cursive. Our local public school made this change probably more than five years ago.
DeleteI don't think kids necessarily need to learn formal cursive, but they all need to know how to write by hand and not just via "keyboarding"! Even when I learned cursive, I didn't stick to many of its more formal rules. For some letters I'd use the printed form -- a capital Q, for example -- and then write the rest of the word in cursive.
ReplyDeleteI agree and I haven't heard of anyone advocating teaching print writing at all though I suppose I wouldn't be shocked if someone told me that it is happening somewhere. I think that is a bit too premature but perhaps one day we will get to that point too.
DeleteI should just print a capital Q or a capital Z because I always struggle with how to write those in cursive even after all these years.
I took Latin in High School...three years and I could read and write Latin. I think it helps me with words. I think it is very SAD that Penmanship is not being taught. I recall the special lined paper...ivory with blue lines that I practiced forming the letters on. I should buy some of that paper and teach my Great Grands:)
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing we all teach our kids things that benefited us that may never benefit them. I think likely, even if the next generation were to know how to read and write Latin, there would be less of an opportunity to use it than for your generation and thus they are less likely to pass it on. Sadly, traditions changing and going away seems to be the progress of life.
DeleteWe are much too dependent on the internet. Much much too much. (AI would have corrected that last sentence.). Now to sign legal documents I can just choose a script font for Docusign and it is done. We will no longer matter soon.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is a double edged sword. I'm sure one could easily rattle off a dozen things that we have benefited greatly due to such a thing as the internet. I know I often long for "simpler" times in the face of progress. My kids will likely go through the same emotions themselves at some point over something you and I could never imagine happening now. It is the circle of life.
DeletePersonally, I think that teaching cursive writing is a good way to develop fine motor skills for one's hands, with applicability beyond just writing.
ReplyDeleteAs for Latin, I learned far more about the structure and history of English Language in three years of Latin than in my formal English lessons.
I don’t doubt there are benefits to be had by teaching cursive or Latin. I also don’t doubt there are benefits to be had by using those resources teaching other things that might also have more practical current uses in today’s society.
DeleteMy son prints, at 37 years old. Kinda sad. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI think it is right and natural to feel sad about any loss of knowledge that doesn't get passed on.
DeleteInteresting thoughts, Ed. Of course, you use AI and have access to it at will. So your reasoning makes sense from that perspective. For those of us who can't or don't, it still seems like a dumb move on the part of the academic decision makers.
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent point and of course, you are right. There is a bit of privilege in my beliefs. I do think we will reach a point if it hasn't already passed where the use of A.I. won't be a choice but something that happens automatically whether you/we want it or not.
DeleteI fall into the cursive category; it teaches a certain amount of discipline through practice and connects one to being able to read the letters of the past. We can certainly use computers for that; however we can also use computers to effectively type as well using only our voices. I fear we are in real danger of become a oral and visual culture only, completely dependent on a technology which we neither understand nor can repair. Lose the technology, and we lose our collective memories.
ReplyDeleteTo that end, I predict within the next few years the idea of keyboarding on anything more than phone will also be seen as regressive because voice capture exists.
It is one of those things we have talked about before that I think will follow you and I well to our graves but perhaps not to our kids generation and definitely not likely beyond that. It isn't a quick death but a slow one.
DeleteInteresting take, Ed. I feel like it's a dangerous, even if inevitable, road we're on depending on AI to "translate" everything for us. That said, of my three sons, only one can write cursive, and it is an italicized form - something between writing and printing. My own handwriting is something between printing and cursive. I also see value in physically writing (over simply typing) because I believe it probably helps us process and solidify information differently than simply typing (with our thumbs, no less). It's a bit mind-boggling to contemplate how the world may change such that two or more generations from now will find today's AI technology archaic. Or maybe even quaint.
ReplyDeleteThat is an excellent point about the danger of relying on AI. I hadn’t thought about that.
DeleteMy cursive suffered when I was 13 and learned morse code. I was taught a certain way to print letters quickly and now I go back and forth from printing to cursing. But now, why learn code when AI can read it (some transmitters even come with code readers!).
ReplyDeleteMy hope is that we will use this time not spent deciphering for some good.
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