> “cursive” writing – in which the pen is not raised between each character – has been dropped from the Common Core Curriculum Standards, shared by all states. Since 2013 American children have been required to learn how to use a keyboard and write in print.
I'm sorry. This is so ludicrous. If you can't write legibly unless you're using a computer, how can you be called literate?
And don't come back and say, "it's perfectly fine for them to use print." I attended public school myself, learned to write cursive in the 3rd grade, and never used it again. I thought my natural printing style was good enough, to the point where, to this day, I still sign my name in the jagged, chopped-up, pseudo-cursive printing style that I invented in 4th grade, and only I can read.
Now, I'm a person who loves to listen to classes and take notes with a pen. About 6 months ago, I looked at the piles of jumbled-up notebooks in my closet and was horrified at the chicken scratch on it. I could barely make sense of it. I might as well have not even been taking notes. So I decided to try cursive again. Now, I refuse to print anything unless I have to. Cursive is so much easier, so much faster, so much more legible, so much neater. I simply can't believe I didn't use it for 20 years of my life. People always tell me how good my handwriting is now.
Maybe some people came out of grade school with a neater printing style than I did, but I really, really doubt they can keep that neatness while writing as quickly as they WOULD be if they were using cursive. I would really like to know what the standards people were thinking when they made this decision.