https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:12:57 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968690 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 08:18:51 +0000 lamariniere 1968690@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>To answer the question, I have no idea, but assume, that the local schools teach cursive. </p> <p>This thread makes me think of a tangent. Since I live in Europe, people write cursive differently here than what I know from the US, and I have the worst time reading letters/cards from my husband's family or handwritten notes from other people. I can barely even read notes from<br /> my husband! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968681 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 08:03:52 +0000 blackbird 1968681@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: yeah my mom has super fancy cursive that's hard to read, too! I don't use cursive often unless I'm writing quickly but I just can't imagine telling your boss "hey I can't read these notes because they're cursive..." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968663 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:31:42 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 1968663@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@blackbird: you touched on something that even I struggle with- reading cursive! For the life of me I cannot read my mom's old school Catholic school cursive. I sometimes struggle with everyone else's and have to use context clues to figure it out. I write in a half-print/ half-cursive like my dad, so reading his writing is super easy. Funny thing is most people can easily understand what I write. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968662 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:23:26 +0000 Andrea 1968662@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know, but I will teach my kids at home if I have to (at least to read it). Lots of things are still written in cursive, just look at all the holiday cards right now! So they won't be able to read them? That would be ridiculous. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968657 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:19:09 +0000 blackbird 1968657@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It does, actually. She is expected to write it in by the 5th grade. </p> <p>Also, a lot of her older coworkers, eventually, will use cursive. So what if she can't read her coworkers' notes? that's kind of absurd, so... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968646 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 06:31:02 +0000 mrs scrapbook 1968646@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My last school (K-12) required students to write everything - homework, class work, notes, etc. - in cursive once they learned it in 3rd grade. But in my school before that, I asked my 9th grade students to sign a safety contract, and that's when my co-teacher and I discovered none of them had ever learned cursive so we stopped and taught each one how to sign their own name. </p> <p>I think it is important, if only for the fact that many documents are written in it. I actually try not to use it when I scrapbook after the signature incident because I worry one day my grandchildren or great grandchildren won't be able to read it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968592 Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:27:51 +0000 erinpye 1968592@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jess1483: walled you! Thank you so much for your messages :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968573 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:45:30 +0000 youboots 1968573@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I remember refusing to learn in elementary school 20ish years ago. Random memory. I was not diagnosed as dyslexic until college, that explains a lot, no wonder it was so hard. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968566 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:22:52 +0000 Jess1483 1968566@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Was responding to @erinpye, but her comment was deleted :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968557 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 23:08:07 +0000 erinpye 1968557@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <br /><p><i>This comment has been deleted by the original poster.</i></p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968539 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:45:19 +0000 Jess1483 1968539@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. D: One of the teachers I worked with when I was a behavior specialist used clothespins painted like astronauts--"spacers." Ha! I thought it was clever. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968537 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:44:01 +0000 Mrs. D 1968537@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jess1483: I saw a cool gizmo in pinterest to teach spacing that I'm introducing soon, a spacer cat on a popsicle stick! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968527 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:34:55 +0000 Jess1483 1968527@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@avivoca: Well, it is awesome ;) I remember taking notes in high school in cursive when I was extra bored. </p> <p>As a side note, I can say that the v/u confusion in historical documents tripped up more foreign students when I was a TA at university than cursive would have. They really struggled with that…</p> <p>@Mrs. D: The things you forget when you're not in the classroom. Finger spacing! Indeed. And writing in the lines. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968525 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:34:20 +0000 Mrs. D 1968525@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I teach in a northern Canadian community where most students are behind grade level. my first grade students have extremely poor penmanship. I spend most of our writing time reminding them to use finger spaces, leave spaces between the lines, stay on one line and to pay attention to how tall their letters are. my goal is that when they get to second next year their writing will be legible and not having sentences being one giant word.<br /> cursive writing is not part of Saskatchewan curriculum as far as I know. I don't believe the 2nd 3rd or 4th grade teacher is officially teaching it in my school. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968522 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:32:33 +0000 avivoca 1968522@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jess1483: that's true for a lot of larger pieces, such as the Declaration of Independence, but smaller historical societies generally don't have everything translated. I know that a lot of our items have not been translated, due to the sheer volume of manuscripts we have. I understand where you are coming from, but on the whole I wish that cursive was still considered an important skill to have. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968521 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:31:38 +0000 lilteacherbee 1968521@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH is a 3rd grade teacher and he said he does teach cursive. I think they had taken it out of the state curriculum, but recently added it back in. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968520 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:30:51 +0000 matador84 1968520@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I will say this also, there is a heated debate among many teachers who DO teach cursive whether manuscript or D'Nealian is the proper way. I've know teachers who are very adamant about handwriting! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968516 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:28:04 +0000 Jess1483 1968516@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@avivoca: I thought about that (historical documents) before I wrote, but 1) my focus on low-income students makes me focus on more applicable skills first, and 2) Most of those documents are translated elsewhere.</p> <p>Do I think it's awesome to be able to read older documents? Absolutely. I just couldn't justify spending 10-20 minutes/day focusing on that skill when my instructional time was so limited. I happily provided materials to students who were interested, though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968508 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:25:24 +0000 erinpye 1968508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My kids aren't in school yet, but my own school never taught it. We learned some ugly, precursor to cursive called "cursive italics" at one of the 5 elementary schools I attended, and I was so frustrated, I had my step-mom write me a guide with upper and lowercase cursive letters, and taught myself to write it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968507 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:25:12 +0000 avivoca 1968507@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>As someone who works at a historical society, I think that knowing how to read and write cursive is so important! If you can't read it, then you will not be able to read historical documents. As a kid, I was so excited to learn because writing in cursive was so grown up. I still prefer cursive to this day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968505 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:24:33 +0000 Jess1483 1968505@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrbee: Oh gosh, anything and everything. I mostly only cared if it was legible (I don't think I write my numbers/letters "correctly.") Honestly, with kids who didn't know all their letters, I was focused on other things (I taught inner-city, low-income). Backwards letters and bad capitalization were the only things I really cared about.</p> <p>I do know local Kindergarten classrooms (where I live now) where proper strokes are taught, but 1st grades in the same school didn't say anything, as long as the letters looked fine. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968503 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:24:15 +0000 matador84 1968503@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Some teachers teach it a few minutes a day. Seriously. It's sad. Handwriting is so important and many want to, but with more rigorous content they feel like they understandably don't have the time. Even our handwriting adoption (handwriting without tears) is up this year and not being renewed in the district I work in because it just costs too much. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968501 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:21:42 +0000 mrbee 1968501@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jess1483: That's so interesting! What kind of penmanship/handwriting issues were you seeing? My son is in Kindergarten now, so I'm wondering what kind of issues he might struggle with... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968498 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:19:13 +0000 Jess1483 1968498@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know about the schools around here, but I was supposed to teach "cursive strokes" (the pre-cursor to real cursive) when I taught second grade. I'll be honest, my kids' handwriting was so awful, I totally ignored cursive strokes and focused on general penmanship. I have no idea if the 3rd grade teacher taught it or not.</p> <p>ETA: No, I can't think of why it would be important. Maybe for schools where most students are on/above grade level, but with my students 1-2 years behind when they came to me (in 2nd grade!), I wasn't going to spend time on it... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/does-your-los-elementary-school-teach-cursive#post-1968494 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:17:31 +0000 mrbee 1968494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I asked my son's Kindergarten teacher, and she said that their elementary school definitely teaches cursive! I was surprised because I was doing some googling earlier and I read that a lot of school systems have dropped cursive from their curriculum.</p> <p><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/03/25/294212825/kids-these-days-can-type-but-cant-write-cursive-is-that-bad" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/03/25/294212825/kids-these-days-can-type-but-cant-write-cursive-is-that-bad</a></p> <p>Does your LO's elementary school teach cursive? Do you think cursive is worth teaching, or is it not a big deal if your LO's school doesn't teach it? </p>