Cursive/Printing Ideology

[Jgross at orst.edu]

	Cursive vs. printing has often been a subject of conversation in my
household, having made 3 trips to France with my 2 (American) children and
having talked with numerous other American families in France. French children
are exposed to cursive right from the first years in school. My 4 year old
(moyen section de maternelle) was already bringing home printed materials in
cursive font. Signs around the classroom were in both printing and cursive.
American children who are proficient in printing, but do not know cursive are
often accused by French kids of not knowing how to write (which certainly could
translate as being "ignorant"). Knowing this, we worked hard over this past
summer teaching our 8 year old cursive before going to France, so that he would
have the same capabillities as his classmates. We returned at xmas and his
American third grade teacher is just now beginning to teach the alphabet in
cursive. She expects this to be a priority task through March.

	In a purely American context, I have never felt that not using cursive
is a sign of ignorance. I might add that European students seem to be much
quicker note-takers than American students. Perhaps handwriting method plays a
small role in this.

	Joan Gross

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97330
jgross at orst.edu

	 ----------
> From: 	owner-linganth-digest at ats.rochester.edu
> Reply To: 	linganth at galileo.cc.rochester.edu
> Sent: 	Wednesday, January 12, 2000 2:00 AM
> To: 	linganth-digest at galileo.cc.rochester.edu
> Subject: 	Linguistic Anthropology Digest V1 #542
>
>
> Linguistic Anthropology Digest Wednesday, January 12 2000 Volume 01 : Number
> 542
>
>
>
> Cursive/Printing Ideology
> Re: Cursive/Printing Ideology
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 16:57:31 -0800
> From: Richard J Senghas <Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu>
> Subject: Cursive/Printing Ideology
>
> The following is an intriguing question I received from a student studying
> to teach English as a second language. I was wondering if anyone out there
> has seen any literature on this or similar issues. Since widespread
> computer use has effected significant shifts in written communication
> patterns, I'm interested in anyone who has done recent work concerning
> ideologies surrounding handwriting styles/technologies, and especially
> issues concerning the teaching of handwriting. If I get responses, I'll
> post a summary of them to the list.
>
> >     I have a question for you.  I'm involved in teaching beginning
> >reading to adults.  The lady whose class I'm taking over would like for
> >me to continue her policy of encouraging the students to use handwriting
> [cursive, I assume -RJS]
> >rather than printing, as she feels that if people see that they only
> >know printing, they will feel that the students are ignorant.  If they
> >haven't learned to print, she encourages them to use handwriting first.
>
> - -Richard
>
> ======================================================================
> Richard J Senghas, Asst. Professor       | Sonoma State University
> Department of Anthropology/Linguistics   | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
> Coordinator, Linguistics & TESL Programs | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
> Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu               | 707-664-3920 (fax)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 12:47:20 +0900
> From: Donald Carroll <dcarroll at sg-u.ac.jp>
> Subject: Re: Cursive/Printing Ideology
>
> Dear all,
>
> While I don't have anything directly related to the issue of cursive vs.
> print in English, the following article sheads some interesting light on
> how minor variations in writing styles can be used to establish identity
> within a group.
>
> Kataoka, Juniyokshi.  1997.  Affect and letter-writing:  Unconvential
> conventions in casual writing by young Japanese women.  Language in Society
> 26, 103-136.
>
> Don
>
>
> Prof. Donald Carroll
> English Department
> Shikoku Gakuin University
> Bunkyo-cho 3-2-16
> Zentsuji-shi, Kagawa-ken 765-0013
> Japan
>
> Tel/Fax:  +81 (877) 63 4329
> Email:    dcarroll at sg-u.ac.jp
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of Linguistic Anthropology Digest V1 #542
> *********************************************
>