Do we need to teach cursive writing?

[georges]

I have always hated cursive since I'm a lefty and it was always more difficult for me to learn. I don't see the point in it, we need to teach kids how to spell since autocorrect has dumbed everyone down.

I am ambidextrous and I know lefties who write very well cursive with a fountain pen. Spelling and grammar have gone downhill because of the SMS language.
I always use a fountain pen and write always in cursive or in spencerian. Most people in France and in Europe write cursive and if someone who couldn't read what I wrote in cursive, I mocked him/her ironically by asking him/her at which school he/she went.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Left-handed people are the minions of Satan. Just putting it out there.

 

[sean miguel]

I can write and read cursive though not as well as some people here. ^

The only time I actually use it is when I'm writing a valentine's or mother's day card. It would seem tacky writing in print.

When I DON'T use it is when making credit card purchases at a store or signing for packages on those electronic doohickies. You have to use those stylus' on those little touch screens to write your signature. I just scribble random loops and my bank or UPS must go "hmm, looks legit", cause I've never had any problems.

 

[Rane1071]

Why get rid of it? It not all that hard to learn.

Because it's obsolete?

What's next? Latin? I mean only the silly priesthood and the occasional hipster scientist naming a new dinosaur or virus ever use it.

 

[Will E Worm]

Why get rid of it? It not all that hard to learn.

Because it's obsolete?

What's next? Latin? I mean only the silly priesthood and the occasional hipster scientist naming a new dinosaur or virus ever use it.

Latin should be taught in schools.

 

[georges]

Why get rid of it? It not all that hard to learn.

Because it's obsolete?

What's next? Latin? I mean only the silly priesthood and the occasional hipster scientist naming a new dinosaur or virus ever use it.

Truer words couldn't have been said, well done sir :clap:

 

[Ace Bandage]

Latin should be taught in schools.

Never mind that it's a highly intricate and inflected dead language with seven noun cases (we only have one for possessives and numbers), three distinct genders (we don't use genders with our nouns in English), and six verb tenses (we have two in English). Sure, that seems simple to learn...

 

[Will E Worm]

Never mind that it's a highly intricate and inflected dead language with seven noun cases (we only have one for possessives and numbers), three distinct genders (we don't use genders with our nouns in English), and six verb tenses (we have two in English). Sure, that seems simple to learn...

 

[georges]

Never mind that it's a highly intricate and inflected dead language with seven noun cases (we only have one for possessives and numbers), three distinct genders (we don't use genders with our nouns in English), and six verb tenses (we have two in English). Sure, that seems simple to learn...

What do you do when a country you visit doesn't speak English nor Spanish??? You can't communicate. That is why to know several languages aside these too is important.

 

[Ace Bandage]

As usual, you lack the mental faculties to engage in an intelligent conversation and resort to the childish strategy of posting images as a means of deflecting attention away from your own fucking stupidity. Well done, Will. Allow me to reply in a way that you can comprehend?



I was not making something complicated, I was pointing out the difficulty associated with learning Latin - a very complex dead language. So you can fuck off, you annoying cunt.

What do you do when a country you visit doesn't speak English nor Spanish??? You can't communicate. That is why to know several languages aside these too is important.

What the fuck does this have to do with my point about Latin being a highly intricate but dead language? There isn't any measurable advantage to learning to speak Latin. You are never going to run into a human being on this Earth who speaks only Latin. Do you disagree with that?

And where the fuck did I bring up visiting other countries? I didn't. But again, if I did visit another country, I bet I don't run into anyone who only speaks Latin. There was not any correlation or relationship between learning Latin and visiting other countries. So once again, your comment comes completely out of left fucking field and has no bearing on the conversation at hand. I did not say children should not be taught other languages. I said that they should not learn any dead languages. Learning Spanish would be a much more valuable job skill in America than learning Latin would be. I do not foresee the USA conducting any trade negotiations with Julius Caesar in the near future.

 

[Will E Worm]

Stop causing trouble for no reason.

Just admit you are wrong.



Stop changing your username to bring attention to yourself.

 

[Philbert]

You shudda quit when you weren't so far behind, Will.
Now you done gone and pissed him off.

 

[Ace Bandage]

Stop causing trouble for no reason.

Just admit you are wrong.

What the fuck could I have possibly been wrong about?

Was I wrong about Latin being a dead language? Are they speaking it somewhere that I'm unaware of? Was I wrong about it being extremely intricate and considerably more difficult than English to master? Was I wrong that it would be pointless to teach Latin in school because there would not be any measurable advantages?

Nope. I was right about everything. You're a simplistic idiot as usual. Why don't you go try some activities that you actually have the mental faculties to engage in... like playing with Legos or drawing stick figures with sidewalk chalk. You'd be great at those. But having a reasonable conversation is way beyond anything you're capable of, friend.

Stop changing your username to bring attention to yourself.

Yes, because I made such a huge deal when I changed my username four months ago.

Did I make a thread about it? No. Did I bring it up to anybody to tell them who I was? No. So how exactly how did I draw attention to myself four months ago by changing my user name?

 

[lurkingdirk]

Wow, Will, that's dense even for you.

However, on this occasion, I have to agree that there are serious benefits to having a basic knowledge of Latin. The school route my kids are going through has four years of Latin, and four years of foreign language. They come out of their Latin education with a more solid understanding of syntax and so forth than any other kids I know that age, and it prepares them to learn other, contemporary languages. The school from which they will graduate has won the blue ribbon award of excellence for an educational facility awarded by the President of the United States' office four times, something only 3 schools in the nation have achieved. They have never, since opening, had a placement rate of lower than 97% in colleges, and most of the kids rise to the top of their college classes.

Know what the difference between these kids and other kids their age is? Their writing and reading comprehension skills, and those skills are honed in their Latin classes.

My $0.02 on the matter.

 

[Will E Worm]

Wow, Will, that's dense even for you.

 

[Will E Worm]

Yes, because I made such a huge deal when I changed my username four months ago.

For like the fifth time.

 

[Philbert]

[Sub-thread 1]

What do you do when a country you visit doesn't speak English nor Spanish??? You can't communicate. That is why to know several languages aside these too is important.

I have met (been approached by) English speakers in every country I've been in...in Guatemala I met people who spoke Tsutuiel and English; I met an Afghan policeman in Kabul whose sister was going to UT Austin...hook'em Horns! Yep...Afghan and English.

The single most common spoken language among all countries is English...go figure.



[Main topic]
Just like a fine tailored suit makes a statement, so does cursive and other arcane skills...like an education beyond how to apply for Welfare...

I can print fast, but always prefer cursive...

I find low or non-existent cursive ability most often goes with abysmal spelling skills.

 

[sean miguel]

Nothing is stopping me now, but if I had my druthers, I would've rather learned Latin + Greek in school instead of taking French (n'en déplaise).

Just for personal reasons.

 

[Ace Bandage]

Wow, Will, that's dense even for you.

However, on this occasion, I have to agree that there are serious benefits to having a basic knowledge of Latin. The school route my kids are going through has four years of Latin, and four years of foreign language. They come out of their Latin education with a more solid understanding of syntax and so forth than any other kids I know that age, and it prepares them to learn other, contemporary languages. The school from which they will graduate has won the blue ribbon award of excellence for an educational facility awarded by the President of the United States' office four times, something only 3 schools in the nation have achieved. They have never, since opening, had a placement rate of lower than 97% in colleges, and most of the kids rise to the top of their college classes.

Know what the difference between these kids and other kids their age is? Their writing and reading comprehension skills, and those skills are honed in their Latin classes.

My $0.02 on the matter.

Your kids probably attend an expensive private school. Most of them probably have successful parents. And the bigger correlation there is between socioeconomic status and academic performance. Kids from better backgrounds gets better grades. That's a sad but true fact. While some of their academic performance may be tied to taking Latin, most of it is also tied to the fact that the kids have smaller class sizes, are highly motivated, have involved parents, and have better technology. Those are the advantages that count.

The curriculum you listed above is simply not feasible for public education. I teach at a large inner city school where over 75% of our students are on free and reduced lunch. Fewer than half of my students will attend a four-year college. We have over 2,000 students but parent/teacher conferences only take 2 hours because fewer than 10% of the parents show up. And the ones who do show up are generally the parents of students who are performing well academically. That's another big problem - the parents don't value education so neither do the kids. That's something you don't encounter very often in a private school.

We offer OTP (occupational tech prep) English classes to our students. Basically, it's a dumbed down version of the state standards for students who are not planing to attend college. These classes are always full. I have one section of this class this year and I have 31 students in that class. Most of them struggle with nouns and verbs, let alone participles, gerunds, or infinitives. There's no way they would even begin to comprehend anything to do with Latin. It would be a fiasco.

So while it may help advanced students in their studies, it's not going to do anything for the students who don't even have a basic understanding of their native language.

That's my $0.02.

 

[sean miguel]

While some of their academic performance may be tied to taking Latin, most of it is also tied to the fact that the kids have smaller class sizes, are highly motivated, have involved parents, and have better technology. Those are the advantages that count.

While this may not go well with you, can you add teachers who are held accountable for their performance to that list? As it stands now, the teachers union's #1 priority is looking out for #1. They've admitted so.