national handwriting day

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

Most of my high school students CANNOT write cursive.  If they must
handwrite something, it's nearly always in print because "printing is
faster than cursive."  Well, I guess if you never write cursive,
printing is faster than cursive. Many of those students who print write
in all caps, just making smaller versions for lower case.  Now, I don't
think civilisation is coming to an end, but there is one bad result of
students not being familiar with cursive--many, many of my students
cannot READ cursive either.  If I write a note or comment on a paper, I
might as well be writing in Hebrew, cuz they can't read it.  When I
first heard of this from another teacher shortly after I landed at
Sprague High School, I didn't believe it, but I now believe.  The
problem is that a whole bunch of stuff is now inaccessible to them.  I'm
not even talking about not being able to read a facsimile of the Dec. of
Ind., but many things are still in cursive.  A whole world is shut off
to them. Even the textbook I use has cursive. A few years ago  I figured
I'd give my students some practice so they could read the passages in
the textbook. So, I had my students write cursive in their workbooks.
Good idea?  Hell, no.  I almost had a revolution on my hands.  You
thought I was trying to get rid of school sports.  The dumbest part of
this undertaking was the mother who accused me of failing her lazy brat
for 'not being able to write cursive.'
Fritz J

>>> truespel at HOTMAIL.COM 1/12/2007 7:17 AM >>>
Cursive handwriting may be dieing out.  Only 15% of college
applications are
in cursive.


Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.





>From: Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: national handwriting day
>Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:51:34 -0600
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU>
>Subject:      national handwriting day
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>It's time to celebrate National Handwriting Day, and you can read all
=20=
>
>about it on
>the Web of Language:
>
>"January 23 is National Handwriting Day.  WIMA, the Writing Implement
=20=
>
>Manufacturers Association, which has sponsored the event for thirty
=20
>years, wants you to take a break from =93the rigorous world of =20
>electronic communication=94 and write =93a good, old-fashioned letter,
=20=
>
>complete with your penned signature,=94 just like John Hancock.  In
=20
>fact WIMA picked Jan. 23 for National Handwriting Day to coincide =20
>with Hancock=92s birthday.  Actually John Hancock, author of the =20
>largest and most famous American signature, was born not on Jan. 23
=20
>but on Jan. 12.  But that's not the point.  ... "  find out what the
=20
>point is, and lots more about National Handwriting Day. at
>
>the Web of Language
>
>
>
>
>Dennis Baron
>Professor of English and Linguistics
>Department of English
>University of Illinois
>608 S. Wright St.
>Urbana, IL 61801
>
>office: 217-244-0568
>fax: 217-333-4321
>
>www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
>
>read the Web of Language:
>www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org