Reviving Cursive

This past year, I was working in a third grade class and part of the curriculum is cursive. Personally, the only time I use cursive is when I am signing my name on a credit card receipt, so when the students were learning how to shape upper case letters, I had to refer to a teacher's guide more than once for some of those weird letters.

Fast forward to now. I am currently taking Science and Healthy Living, my last methods class - Hallelujah! - and for our class, we had to make a list of three goals that we were going to work to achieve while in class this summer. They did not have to be limited to physical health, but could also refer to mental health or personal growth. While thinking of my goals, I kept thinking about my third graders and their cursive.

There was a part of me that felt like learning cursive is a bit of a waste. It is a formality or a rite of passage for nine year olds. In fact, I have read some rumors about schools removing cursive all together from their curriculum. Due to the ubiquitous use of technology, cursive is archaic. Most people don't write in only cursive and then I realized that it is almost a dying art-form. That's when I decided that my last goal for the class would be to practice my cursive.

My handwriting is not pretty, which is why I usually choose to write in manuscript, but I have a great appreciation for cursive. My mom has really pretty cursive, the "teacher cursive" and I have always looked at her handwriting and wished I could write like that. Well, I decided that writing is like anything else - it gets better with practice and I also think it is a shame that cursive is dying a slow death when it looks so graceful.

The official goal is that I have to write all if my notes for this class in cursive. My "Health Partner" as my professor calls it, will be checking my notebook at every class, so I can't cheat. I am already starting to see an improvement in my letters and I am especially fond of my 'r' and 'H.' **Side Note: Today, when I was taking notes, I thought my 'r' closely resembled the 'r' that Stan and Jan Berenstain use when signing their name on their books. That's a big 'Boo-yah' for me!

Well kids, the moral of the blog is to find something that is becoming obsolete in society and bring it back to life.

I dare you.

I double-dog-dare you.



Well, now you hafta do it.