An Important School Subject or Something Belonged to the Past.
It is not easy for most of the people to remember the last time they had to write a couple of pages with a pen. All four years of college the students hand out their homework on printed pages, some of them even take notes on their iPads, as it is so much faster, and if one does not have time to write a long word correctively, the editor corrects it for them.
I used to be taught cursive in second grade. We had a whole 2-hour-long class for it every week and it wasn’t any less important than math or science. I had to change schools because we moved, and I entered a class in which cursive was not taken that seriously. The teacher saw my handwriting and thought my parents have done my homework. After she talked to my mom, she was so impressed she asked me to be some sort of TA in handwriting hours.
But, that was way back in 1999, a time where the only electronic devices we - 8-year-old children - used were televisions and Playstations. Now we just do not have to grab a pen and write something anymore, at least not frequently.
I studied English Literature for four years - a major full of writing tasks. However, all these tasks were typed and printed out - sometimes even sent out to the professor via e-mail. We even had Instructors teaching us how to use a word processing software to write a formal essay (instructions like what fonts should we use, how to do spacing, etc.) The only time we had to write down something by hand, was in exams. It was a challenge when it came to article-writing exams where we had to write full essays on paper. Our hands got tired halfway through the tests and the handwritings were not pretty. Maybe universities in other countries already have this technology but this problem in our university will be solved in the future when there’s a system which the students can use to take exams electronically, which is more practical, more accurate, and easier for the professor to read.
The importance of the quality of handwriting is definitely fading and it is not going to exist in the future. When a text is typed on a computer, it is neat, easy to read and does not seem likely to have misspellings or major grammatical errors. Reading hand-written texts are most of the time a challenge; sometimes the readers need to find the writers, show them a certain word and ask them what that word is. Therefore, the question is why the students have to sit through cursive writing classes while they can use this time to learn more important practical subjects. Therefore, I think it is not bad news that the cursive writing courses are being eliminated in some schools. If some students really like this subject and want to learn it, they can always use textbooks and work on them with the help of their parents, or they can take classes outside of school.
