Doing stories in cursive and spelling tests.
2006-11-07 11:01:39 · 7 answers · asked by oliveexum 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Teaching
It's to have the students practice their handwriting, which is very important. The more you practice something, the better you get!
Having neat and readable handwriting is very important, even today with computers being so common. Having illegible handwriting can really be a handicap.
2006-11-07 11:11:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are various reasons that I've heard and I can think of two right now:
The first is historical: People have been teaching their students to do cursive for years. It's part of being well-educated. Why dumb down the curriculum even more?
The second is practical: There are still people who write in cursive and the best way to be able to read the cursive is to know how to do it yourself. You also legally have to be able to sign your name in cursive (or some ressemblance thereof) on a cheque and many official documents. In some countries and schools, kids don't even learn to print--they just learn cursive. If you learn cursive, you can usually read print just fine. It's harder the other way around. Which points back up to part of #1--it's part of being well-educated.
As with any skill, you need to practise it to be better at it. Which is why you then have to use the cursive you were taught to write stories and spelling tests.
2006-11-07 11:18:56 · answer #2 · answered by glurpy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There's no question that cursive is a dying skill. It is already being de-emphasized in many schools, and it's likely to be done even less in the future. There are, however some good reasons for teaching it--at least at the elementary level.
The first is that cursive is still the standard for a legal signature. Everyone should be able to sign his or her name in standard cursive, regardless of whether they use script penmanship in any other setting. (As an adult I NEVER use cursive for anything but my name, but I do sign my name a lot.)
Second it teaches the concept that more than one symbol can represent the same meaning, a skill that relates as much to math as it does to language. Even in a world where typing on a computer is the standard of written communication, it is important to recognize each letter when it appears in different fonts. Learning cursive is an early introduction to this concept.
2006-11-07 13:28:08 · answer #3 · answered by dmb 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It really depends on each district as to how strict they want teachers to be about handwriting. Of course that practice makes perfect so what better way to practice than to constantly do it, even on something like spelling tests. Another reason why teachers stil do it, regardless of the technology age is because its part of the state standards in Language arts. Some district do what's known as ball and stick writing and others do D'Nealian (adding monkey tails to say i, j, l, m, n, h, t, x).
On the flip side, why shouldn't they make their students do cursive? Its an important skill.
2006-11-07 13:29:45 · answer #4 · answered by x_y_z_012 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
So they can get along in the world where there are people reading and writing cursive.
2006-11-07 11:09:31 · answer #5 · answered by momsam49 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah since everybody types stuff anyway and print is more legible I wonder why we engage in this archaic practice of cursive.
2006-11-07 11:10:00 · answer #6 · answered by supafly1018 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well thats like asking why do i have to take algebra 2 when im probably never going to use the quadratic formula... or pretty much almost everything we learn in school in our lives. cursive however, is like a whole other "font" that they are going to have to be able to read and write in thier lifetimes at one point or another. idk thats just what i think
2006-11-07 11:09:08 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋