Do schools still teach cursive?


Seems to be a dying style of writing.

Cursing.

It died out in the UK years ago. In fact when I was lecturing in the US, I couldn't give hand written in-class exams as I couldn't read their cursive writing.

In the late 60's and early 70's when my mother was secretary to the provincial minister of education she received letters that were improperly composed, mis-spelled, and lacking proper grammar. ... from teachers. That could be the start of the going to the dogs timeline.

We learned it in the 80's in California elementary schools, I think around 4th grade, but by the time Middle school and high school came around, teachers wanted homework/class work printed and reports/essays etc typed.

I can remember most of the letters in cursive, but its sloppy, hard to read, and writing that way is too slow, I can print far faster, but these days, not much needs to be written in general anymore.

I wonder what the logic is behind not teaching cursive. At school, my kids learn drama, dancing and have PE 3 times a week, plus something called DPA (Daily Physical Activity) which means jumping up and down or something, but the powers that be don't think it's important that they know how to sign their names to a job contract or mortgage application as adults. We've taught them cursive at home, but they are not encouraged to use it at school. I find it odd.

We learned how to write early on, probably grade 3. Somewhere I still have my report cards; "Caretaker's problem with writing may be due to the way he holds his pencil." I think in grade 5 we started writing with fountain pens and bottles of ink then the cartridge type, (NO bright blue ink!).

I've never understood these grade/year references.

I'm not sure when we started but up to age 10 I was in a school where we did Tables, reading (including going to the head too read with him) handwriting, we had electric bells and wrote with biros.

The family moved part way through last year in primary school - my dad got a better job - and after Christmas I started going to the new school before going on to Comprehensive/High.

The school bell was hand held and they wouldn't let us use biros or even fountain pens. Scratch Pens they called them but they appear to be called dip pens on google.



Inkblots everywhere.

That school was like going back in time by a couple of decades.

Depends on the region - I just had a look at Alberta's and it is higher than the UK, and I would say, substantially so. Canada, the US, and Australia all pay their teachers a lot more than the UK does.

Teaching, however, does have ENORMOUS turnover, and a lot of new teachers (something like half) quit after their first 3-5 years.

Not trying to be overly contentious but what do you mean by "highly regarded"? And, by who? And why is being "highly regarded" important?

I agree with that. Who cares. Pay, work hours (most teachers do 50-70 hours a week, including weekend work), and classroom conditions are far more important.

I want to be highly regarded. Damn it!

Doctors used to be treated like Gods, that why I entered the profession. Now look, bloody Dr Google says this, Dr Oz says that....unbelievable

Ha!

I'm not sure any public sector job in either country is highly regarded anymore. People may pay it lip service but when push comes to shove all the stereotypical comments come out long holidays, gold plated pensions, race to the bottom wages.

Maybe the comments were always there but the Internet certainly does allow everyone the opportunity to make their voices heard.