Penmanship: The Lost Art

From USA Today:
"Some states buck the trend and preserve penmanship"

The pen may not be as mighty as the keyboard these days, but California and a handful of states are not giving up on handwriting entirely. Bucking a growing trend of eliminating cursive from elementary school curriculums or making it optional, California is among the states keeping longhand as a third-grade staple. The state's posture on penmanship is not likely to undercut its place at the leading edge of technology, but it has teachers and students divided over the value of learning flowing script and looping signatures in an age of touchpads and mobile devices. Some see it as a waste of time, an anachronism in a digitized society where even signatures are electronic, but others see it as necessary so kids can hone fine motor skills, reinforce literacy and develop their own unique stamp of identity. The debate comes as 45 states move toward adopting national curriculum guidelines in 2014 for English and math that don't include cursive handwriting, but require proficiency in computer keyboarding by the time pupils exit elementary school. Several states, including California, Georgia and Massachusetts, have added a cursive requirement to the national standards, while most others, such as Indiana, Illinois and Hawaii have left it as optional for school districts. Some states, like Utah, are still studying the issue. Whether it's required or not, cursive is fast becoming a lost art as schools increasingly replace pen and paper with classroom computers and instruction is increasingly geared to academic subjects that are tested on standardized exams. Even the standardized tests are on track to be administered via computer within three years. Cursive still has many proponents who say it benefits youngsters' brains, coordination and motor skills, as well as connects them to the past, whether to handwritten historical documents like the Constitution or to their parents' and grandparents' letters. "I think it's part of your identity and part of your self-esteem," said Eldra Avery, who teaches language and composition at San Luis Obispo High School. "There's something really special and personal about a cursive letter."

^ I think every child needs to learn penmanship. They may use I-Pads, smart phones, etc but most can't spell or write correctly even on those and teaching penmanship will help them in those areas. When I learned Russian while studying in Yaroslavl I was only taught to read and write printed Cyrillic and not cursive Cyrillic and to this day I still can't read cursive Russian. I learned cursive English in school when I was young and can write it today, but I found I can write much faster in print and only use cursive on checks and when signing my name - but I still believe it is a basic element that everyone needs to learn. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/24/california-cursive-penmanship-technology/1724263/#