I guess my point was that there were other reasons for teaching cursive other than just how to write it. But you are probably right.IADad said:MomoJA, interesting thought about the developing motor skills. Don't you think those will be replaced in different ways by other activities? I'm not suggesting the outcome is the same, but as kids spend more time with computers and phones and games the dexterity and brain connectivity they develop there might be more useful to their digital world, no? or am I missing the point?
I won't really mourn the decline of cursive. I accept it as part of the evolution of things, but I do find it a tiny bit alarming that in another generation or so, only a handful of people will be able to read primary sources. Forget the Declaration of Independence, for example. That is preserved in other forms, but those letters your great grandfather wrote home during the war, and those sappy love letters your mother's high school boyfriend wrote her, etc., will be thrown out and lost forever. It's sort of sad, don't you think? Or am I being too nostalgic?
I was cleaning out some desk drawers at my parents' house the other day. I found the most hilarious cards and letters written to my sister in camp, notes from religion class about what "I vow I will never do," the beginnings of a "book" someone was writing, notes passed in class, etc. I don't suppose it is worth it to save those things for our grandchildren. They'd have to hire someone to read them to them.