Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Should children still be taught how to write in cursive longhand script?
One thing is certain - at a young age we can learn almost ANYTHING if we are required... but in our twenties or thirties or forties we will not be able to learn cursive script, touch typing, bicycle riding, driving an automobile, or any number of other things because there are windows of opportunity which close as we age. One obvious window is our ability to read, learn spelling, grammar, punctuation. I have known some adults who were either totally illiterate (total inability to deal with symbols) or functionally illiterate (they can stumble through a sentence with difficulty but they have little comprehension.) I worked at Stone & Websters Engineering in the 1980s and they had archives of ledgers going back to the 19th century. Everyone commented on how markedly the quality of the handwriting declines around the turn of the century.
