During my recent trip to three national parks my spouse and I ventured to listen to some podcasts for the stretches of road where we didn’t want to acknowledge each other. Hey- it was a lot of together time in the cab of the pickup. Perhaps we could learn something new or find different conversation starters?
The first two forays into educational moments were busts. One was just stupid and one was on “the wetlands.” I fell asleep during both so they did have some redeeming qualities. The third podcast was more exciting – touting the return of cursive writing in schools.
Shockingly, educators and the powers-that-be discovered there is a critical link between that hand/eye business which cursive writing enforces and the age old practice of learning language. Hm. Makes you wonder when we decided there wasn’t?
Cursive writing was exciting! It was a third-grade endeavor and I practiced and practiced to make my letters perfect. Loops were the best. Once I was freed of the standard staying-in-the-lines of that dotted-midline paper I made my writing dramatic. Larger loops and all sorts of swirls neatly slanted to the right. I changed that capital “R” to the one I liked, still in use today. I took up calligraphy to further embellish my skills. I wrote big and flowery, taking up all the space I could when my signature was required. Both of my parents had beautiful handwriting and I wanted to emulate that.
Proudly, my five-year old pup is learning cursive in kindergarten. It’s so cool, and at that age, very, very exciting. I celebrate the return of cursive.
And I have nothing bad to say about rote memorization. End of PSA.