settle a score

[itsrtimedownhere]

do public schools teach cursive?

my husband insisted they've stopped teaching it. i think he's crazy.

[Thalia the Muse]

My daughter's in public third grade, and learning cursive right now. I hope you have some money riding on this!

[itsrtimedownhere]

i kind of wish that i did.

[mammastar2]

Yup, in third grade. They're using Handwriting without Tears.

Quick, ask him to make it a bet, then "discover" our answers!

[Drummer's Wife]

your DH is wrong! At least public schools here do.

[itsrtimedownhere]

woot! i'm winning!

we were watching a video game documentary last night. (the king of kong) they were going on and on about how playing video games improves hand-eye coordination. this is in grown men.

i said that that's a crock. hand-eye coordination should have been mastered in 3rd grade when they finish learning cursive.

he said "kid's don't even learn cursive anymore."

[zinemama]

My son's fourth grade class is learning cursive this year.

[staceychev]

Originally Posted by itsrtimedownhere

i said that that's a crock. hand-eye coordination should have been mastered in 3rd grade when they finish learning cursive.

Does hand-eye coordination development stop? I thought it was something that could constantly be improved.

[Llyra]

I've worked in four elementary schools, all public, in four different states (Texas, California, and New Jersey). All of those schools taught cursive, from mid-second grade to mid-third grade.

[babeak]

Some schools in TX don't. I have a friend that was teaching 7th grade and kids could not read cursive, so she had to print on the board.

[LuckyMommaToo]

(We loved King of Kong!) My SIL teaches 5th grade, and she says there is much less time/emphasis on cursive. Even by 5th grade, many kids are typing longer assignments.
-e

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by LuckyMommaToo

(We loved King of Kong!)

Our neighbor is the King of Kong. Seriously, the one from the movie. He has the Donkey Kong game in his garage--- you can see it from the alley. He got to be in a movie with Vince Vaughn last year because, apparently, Vince Vaughn also loved the King of Kong.

[itsrtimedownhere]

cool!

Originally Posted by TiredX2

Our neighbor is the King of Kong. Seriously, the one from the movie. He has the Donkey Kong game in his garage--- you can see it from the alley. He got to be in a movie with Vince Vaughn last year because, apparently, Vince Vaughn also loved the King of Kong.

[Momily]

Originally Posted by itsrtimedownhere

woot! i'm winning!

we were watching a video game documentary last night. (the king of kong) they were going on and on about how playing video games improves hand-eye coordination. this is in grown men.

i said that that's a crock. hand-eye coordination should have been mastered in 3rd grade when they finish learning cursive.

he said "kid's don't even learn cursive anymore."

At my school and my son's school, they start cursive in 3rd, and finish it later -- I don't think they ever require kids to use it enough to gain fluency, so in that sense it is a thing of the past.

Handwriting is a grapho-motor skill, not really a hand-eye skill. Hand-eye coordination certainly can continue through the lifespan. It's one of the many reasons why you don't see a lot of 3rd grade artwork in the Louvre or Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[ecoteat]

My school teaches it. We had a big discussion a few years ago about whether we should continue to or not and decided that it was important for kids to at least experience it and have the opportunity to approach handwriting as more of an art form. We also didn't want them to not be able to read it.

But it does seem silly. We teach it in 3rd-4th or 5th grade, and then never ask the kids to use it again. It's not like a huge amount of time is spent on it, but it's a skill that has little relevance beyond 5th grade.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Here they still teach in in 3rd grade.

[elmh23]

At our private school, cursive is taught starting in 3rd grade and is expected to be used for all assignments except those that are required to be typed (long essays for instance.)

[beanma]

Private school here and they're teaching it in 3rd grade. The kids love it. They're very excited about it. My dd1, in particular, loves fancy handwriting.

Tiredx2! How cool about the King of Kong being your neighbor. I assume you mean the dad with the kids and not Billy what's his name. Fun movie, but boy oh boy!

[itsrtimedownhere]

thanks! i showed him :P

i wonder if the other guy billy is really that much of a d-bag or if the movie just made it out to seem that way.

[laohaire]

I don't know whether they teach it here or not but neither DH nor I were taught it.

I'm planning to homeschool and plan to teach it to DD.

Handwriting is overall a lost art. DH and I both have handwriting like 12 year olds.