Rufus T. Firefly wrote:E7 wrote:They who decided to stop teaching cursive and allow calculators in classes, should be neutered.
Really?
So
what do you really need cursive for;
what do you actually use it for other than to write a check and sign your name? I have not used it in decades other than to scribble totally illegible red ink notes on manuscripts.
The inability to use cursive has nothing to do with grammar and proper use of language. I'd be more
concerned about the decision to stop teaching spelling and then grammar, but before that I'd more worried about finding teachers that could actually teach either...
For what it may be worth to the conversation:
(Fair warning, here comes a tome.)
Just last week, I completed the enormous privilege of tutoring a nine, then ten year old, boy, in his parochial school, bringing to a close two academic years of strengthening
his motivation to learn, dissolving away his fear of making mistakes, and strengthening his ability to use language, particularly when reading and writing. Like so many children these days, he could verbalize quite well.
Just this past month, we serendipitously made the move from his
printing everything into his journal, which we call "The Book of Matthew," his record of accomplishment as well as one of the learning-tools we utilized, to using
cursive. Once he saw that I had used cursive to write several words into my notes in front of him, he immediately changed to using cursive in his journal, without my prompting, his having known all along how to write that way, too. We ended the academic year utilizing both printing and cursive, whichever seemed to suit him the most at any given moment. I learned something that day, too.
Regarding
grammar and spelling, from the very first day in our little two-desk cubbyhole at the end of the school hallway, we
decoded the language, one letter at a time, every vowel and consonant, root , prefix, and suffix in front of us, derived from his regular classroom- assigned reading and worksheets, as well as from his musings and stories he related to me in his observations about life; diphthongs and schwas included, etc.
Here's just one example of how clever he is and of how well he paid attention and learned - grew. He told me the short story of the recent vacation he and his family had taken to Arizona, from which he had brought me the gift of a souvenir medallion. I put aside what I had planned to begin our lesson that day and started with the word "vacation". We looked at its root, "vacate." WE voiced its long "a" sounds and took note of the silent "e". When I asked him where the "e" had gone from the word "vacate" in "vacation," he said, "
It went on vacation" (!!!!!!!!!!) We both howled in laughter and congratulated ourselves for his obvious victory with language. I cannot even describe to you how truly gratified I felt.
You see, from the start, I established the custom of bringing with me a little bag of objects (all of which he got to keep) which related to the sounds that were the focus of each day's lesson. For example, on the day I determined to teach the silent sound of "b" which occurs in some words, such as "lamb" and "plumb," I brought in a small handheld bricklayer's level. We checked our desks for their being level or not, and then we checked the wall for its being "plumb." He had his eureka moment, of course.
Every subsequent silent "b" word we examined was quickly dispatched in his victory over those might-have-been problem words.
Phonics and dissecting every word and every sentence for the full meaning and sound contained in every word and syllable paid dividends for Matthew. Instead of being horrified to read in class, he now moves toward winning over those challenges. He would, literally,
run to meet me for the start of each class session, to our little sport at the end of the hallway. He hugs me hello whenever he sees me anywhere, which I take as a blessing.
So, yes, I support the conviction that grammar and spelling are important. I acknowledge how influential the computers can be, with their spell-checks and other aids. However, no computer gave Matthew the confidence to read and to write.
His analysis of every word he met with me helped him learn how to conquer language and make it useful for him in his life.
