[LINK] welcome to the age of keyboards

[Jan Whitaker]

[I find the way kids in Australia are taught to write bizarre 
(disconnected cursive of some type), but this is just story below is 
just crazy.]

Debate grows over teaching cursive
2:12 PM, May 13, 2011

http://www.9news.com/news/article/198314/188/Debate-grows-over-teaching-cursive

ST. PAUL, Minn. - David Bluhm's third graders at the Christ Household 
of Faith School in St. Paul, Minnesota have been practicing their 
cursive handwriting all year.

Bluhm's students are so good at cursive one is even a state 
handwriting champion.

On the other side of town at Meadow Lake Elementary in New Hope, 
Nancy Lehn's third graders are also working on their handwriting.

While her students work diligently inside the classroom there's 
growing debate outside on whether what they are learning is useful.

Supporters of dropping cursive from the classroom say there should be 
more emphasis on technology skills. Opponents like Bluhm and Lehn say 
students still need to learn an efficient way to write.

Lehn said students still need to be able to write their names and be 
able to read other people's cursive.

"They're always people who are going to use cursive so they need to 
be able to identify the letters as well," Lehn said.

"To take this out of our lives is a big mistake," Bluhm said.

Learning cursive is more than learning a style of writing, according 
to Bluhm. He said he believes cursive combines reading, spelling, 
vocabulary and composition.




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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