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Is Cursive Irrelevant? Indiana Thinks So

Schools no longer required to teach it

By Sarah Whitmire,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 7, 2011 2:25 PM CDT

(Newser) – Inevitability department: Indiana has removed a district requirement that elementary schools teach students cursive handwriting, reports Fox 59 in Indianapolis. Beginning this fall, schools can teach cursive if they want, though they may prefer to use the time honing typing skills: Students will now be expected to be proficient in keyboarding.

While kids interviewed were in agreement about ditching cursive, their parents had a cooler reaction to the policy shift. “When kids are learning math or reading, they still say ‘When are we ever going to use this? We’ll never use this in life’, but they obviously do, throughout their life," says one mom. "Being able to read and write cursive is no different.” Here's a similar take on the subject.

Indiana swaps cursive classes for requirement in typing proficiency.
Indiana swaps cursive classes for requirement in typing proficiency.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 12 comments
baalzevuv
Jul 7, 2011 11:57 PM CDT
lol @ the naysayers.  Cursive is a tedious waste of time.  If there's ever a nuclear war that breaks the power outlets that charge my laptop, I'll admit that you guys are totally right.  Otherwise, lol.  Good luck writing 100 words a minute with spel check,
boxcar
Jul 7, 2011 9:31 PM CDT
Cursive was relevant using Quills and Ink Pens where INK literally "flowed" from pen onto paper where a lifted pen tip could leave a blotch- Ball Point Pens of the 50s obsoleted cursive as much as typing. Teens in training to be engrs realized they needed to perfect ability to PRINT by hand as ALL drawings are lettered in PRINT form only, NO CURSIVE per Mil-Std-8 drafting req'ts. So you bet we all used printing to achieve speeds just as fast as cursive. We also took typing- Hey, Troy Aikman, a 90s Dallas Cowboys quarterback once won a high school typing contest beating out a field of 300 students
TIII
Jul 7, 2011 4:19 PM CDT
Screw it. Teach the kids how to txt and post pictures on Tumbler instead.  I will be competing against these kids in under 18 years so I want them to stay dumb. 

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