Cursive Catastrophe!

Over the past few years, I have noticed something that I find rather alarming occurring in our local school system.

The problem appears to be more widespread than I had originally thought, too, as I have found reference to it in several other Mommie sites that I frequent.

Parents, look at your children's homework assignments. Have you noticed anything odd about them?

If your child is in the third grade or higher, are they still printing their answers and papers?

I would like for you to take a look at your child's work and really ask yourself something.

Does your child know how to write in cursive? I know it sounds like an odd question, but seriously. Ask them and see what they say.

When my son went to middle school for the first time last year, a rather frightening incident occurred.

Most of the kids could NOT write in cursive. Granted, they knew a little about how to write in cursive, but not enough to get their points accross and get points for their answers.

But I could not believe what I was hearing from my son. Instead of jumping straight into their regular subject matter for that grade, these teachers were having to reteach the children how to write properly.

The children's handwriting just was not legible. The problem, you might ask? There were some letters that these kids just did not know how to form.

Because of this, the children just formed them in whatever way they could imagine, making homework and classwork difficult to read and grade for the teacher.

These English teachers had to actually re-teach their sixth graders how to write properly.

The problem was widespread to the extent where the kids were told eventually to just print so everyone could read their writing and regular classwork could resume.

I know we all worry about our children having sloppy handwriting, but have you ever stopped to wonder if there was a reason for it?

I asked my child to write his alphabet down for me in capital and lower case cursive letters.

Together we went over them and I compared his letters to a standardized chart that I had found on the Internet (as an adult I did not trust that my evolved choice of lettering would suffice under teacher scrutiny as we all adopt different ways of writing eventually.)

So, I am curious. My child went to one of the area schools that is considered to be better than the average norm.

His middle school is most certainly one of the best in the area as well, yet teachers are having to stop regular classwork to teach remedial concepts as simple and mundane as how to write properly.

So, has this happened to your child or have you noticed it happening in your schools?

I know for a fact that my son was taught in elementary school to write in cursive so why was he never made to use this knowledge?

These children were NEVER required to put it into practice, meaning that they were required to PRINT their assignments rather than submit them using a cursive hand.

My concern is that this practice appears to be perpetuating, even in my son's above average middle school.

Should this issue concern us at all or am I being an out-dated parent whose mindset is a sign of her times? What are your thoughts on this issue as a parent?