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Comments
When I was in elementary school, we learned cursive during second grade, but we weren't allowed to use it outside of handwriting and spelling time until late in the year. In third grade, however, it was all cursive, all the time, and especially on spelling tests. I remember having some trouble with the cursive letter combinations and getting my spelling words marked wrong because of it- as if spelling tests weren't bad enough! At this school, no matter how horrible your handwriting was, you wrote in cursive until middle school. Although many things have changed since I attended, the handwriting rule is still in place (it was a private school).
I can't imagine requiring first graders to learn and use cursive just a few months into their formal schooling career (not that kindergarten doesn't count!). There are enough issues for these kids just getting their thoughts onto the paper, I don't see why it's necessary to add another barrier in the process. I didn't have too many issues with cursive in second grade, but I quickly dumped it once I was able to in middle school. Maybe I would have better feelings toward cursive if we started later?
Posted by: GLF | October 24, 2008 09:40 AM