Nation's teachers fear writing on the wall for cursive
By Rachel Konrad
Associated Press
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Monique McGowan and other third graders at Horrall Elementary School have perfected ascenders and descenders, and their letters' tails and legs hit the appropriate base lines — even the tricky capitals G, Q and S.
Associated Press
But Monique, who plays games on her dad's laptop at home, says she'd rather punch a keyboard than write cursive. "With typing, you don't have to erase when you make a mistake," the 9-year-old says. "You just hit delete, so it's a lot easier."
Cursive may end up a casualty of the computer age.
Such attitudes are worrying to a growing number of parents, educators and historians, who fear that computers are speeding the demise of a uniquely American form of expression. In many classrooms, traditional cursive is on its way out. So many students have trouble with it that teachers are increasingly adopting a simpler style known as Italic or "print cursive."
Online discussion forums for teachers estimate that as many as 7 percent of third graders are using Italic. It's not as loopy or slanted as the 20th-century style developed by Austin Norman Palmer and adopted as a standard in schools nationwide.
According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 90 percent of Americans between the ages of 5 and 17 use computers. It's not uncommon for kids to type 20 or 30 words per minute by the time they leave elementary school.
Monique's teacher, Ed Boell, is fighting the trend. He ends his cursive lesson with a warning: "The truth is, boys and girls, even if you write a lot of e-mail on the computer, you will always need to write things down on paper at some point in your life," Boell says. "The letters you write to people are beautiful, and they'll cherish them forever. Have any of you ever received an e-mail that you cherished?"
The students eagerly shout, "No!" and return to loops and curves.
