Why are the parents in my friend's circle so laid back and unphazed by this?
Why are my writer friends quiet about it?
To me, this is the equivalent of burning books.
What will happen years from now when young people stumble upon old letters, official records, backs of old photographs, postcards, legal documents, medical records, post it notes...?
Will they need translators?
Yeah yeah, Im told cursive is no longer used as much 'because kids type their assignments now.' How come no one seems too concerned we are raising a generation of tethered machine dependents.
My teacher friends tell me that 'since "No Child Left Behind" and mandatory standards there isn't as much time to teach some of the things we learned when we were kids.'
One of my friends tries to build in time for cursive for her 4th & 5th graders by giving them a packet, but they mostly have to do it independently.
My son learned to read and write cursive at home before he began pre school but he got better at it in school thanks to his teachers. My mom was a 30 year old retired NYC teacher. I wonder what she would say about this.
Another friend recently told me 'he can type 100 words a minute so he doesn need to write cursive.' I type over 100 words a minute and still feel the need to write cursive. You CAN do both.
Seems to me cursive will become a foreign language. I wonder if it will be a foreign language to be included in a resume.
Update 12.5.2011:
School, Teachers and Parents with a backbone:
Waldorf School Of The Peninsula In California Succeeds With No- And Low-Tech Education
'The Waldorf School of the Peninsula sits in the midst of Silicon Valley, home to the nation's leading tech companies and startups. It educates the children of tech gurus and executives of the technological industry. But the school itself teaches without digital assistance.'
I'm sure someone, specially those who make money from this, might disagree or just blow it off as a non issue. My honest opinion is Technology has no place in early grades in schools. Introduce it later. Maybe in the latest years of JHS, maybe not till HS.
No wonder our school system is going broke! Introducing technology that is obsolete in a year's time.
