Letters to the Editor: If kids must learn cursive, old folks should learn to use smartphones
To the editor: As a 77-year-old who won my school’s penmanship competition in fourth grade, I’m pretty happy that California kids will be learning cursive handwriting. (“Learning cursive in school, long scorned as obsolete, is now the law in California,” Jan. 8)
If it’s true that it helps with cognitive development or is beneficial to kids with dyslexia, that’s great. However, I don’t think it’s going to save democracy by helping students read the founding documents of our nation in the original script. That old style of writing is still largely undecipherable for most of us. Besides, printed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are readily available.
Personally, I like cursive because writing it is so much faster and easier than printing.
On the other hand, I find that many people my age are woefully lacking in computer skills. Many I know miss out on cultural and social events because they can’t drive at night or don’t know how to use their phones to hail an Uber.
Maybe we could work out some kind of deal where the oldsters teach children the art of cursive and the younger students teach the elders how to perform some basic operations on computers and phones that would help them remain independent. It could be a win-win for everyone.
Laurie Jacobs, San Clemente
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To the editor: I read your article on the new state law requiring cursive instruction with a little sadness, and a lot of concern — sadness, because cursive is a joyous ability recent generations are missing out on, and concern, because being able to read historical documents is mentioned in passing as merely a benefit.
I can only speak for the Latin-based languages in which founding documents, treaties, speeches and histories — so many defining experiences and stories — are all written in cursive. It’s important to be able to read something for oneself, and not simply take the word of someone else regarding what any document says.
Why end the article with comments from Morgan Polikoff, a USC education professor, instead of someone who values cursive? He dismissively compares issues facing education with teaching cursive as though it’s an either-or dichotomy.
Remember, it’s an aberration that cursive hasn’t been taught in recent years. Coming together to bring it back just might be an unlikely blueprint to find ways to agree on and address other, deeper problems.
Karen Samski, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Reading your article about cursive reminded me of my first year of teaching in the 1960s.
I was introducing cursive to my third-grade class, and after checking to see that they were holding their pencils correctly and that their papers were in the right position, I wrote large cursive letters on the chalkboard, asking them to watch carefully and do as I did.
After checking their progress, I was surprised at how poorly most of them had done. Then, I realized that they had taken me at my word and had written as I did.
I am left-handed.
Molly Brockmeyer, La Cañada Flintridge
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To the editor: As an educator of more than 40 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District, I was excited to learn that cursive handwriting will return to the public school curriculum.
Cursive handwriting can be considered an art form in and of itself. Punching keys from a computer keyboard or touching letters or symbols on a smartphone just do not qualify as an academic skill. Learning cursive handwriting will promote overall academic learning.
Also, I might add it would not be such a bad idea for Gov. Gavin Newsom to bring back shop classes to help non-academic-leaning students graduate high school at a higher rate and immediately enter the work force with valuable trade skills.
Alan Sagat, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: The inability to write cursive has led to an inability to read cursive. It is important to revive cursive teaching because now students will be able to read the Bill of Rights and other historical documents.
Karen Marks, Los Angeles
