Arizona now requires cursive be taught in schools

[TexasTowelie]

PHOENIX -- Arizona has made some big decisions regarding state public school education standards as they relate to the federal guidelines of Common Core.

It's being called Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards.

Among the headline changes are that the state will require public schools to teach students cursive. Students will have to learn print and cursive. For the latter, students will be taught cursive through fifth grade. By third grade, students must be able to read and write cursive in upper and lower case, according to KPHO.

Overall, nearly half of Common Core standards have been revised in K-12 math and language arts. Forty percent of math and 48 percent of language arts Common Core standards have been revised at the state level.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/education/arizona-now-requires-cursive-taught-schools/1CqzeoegVYBt8I1kg0MPUO/

[SpookyDem]

1. Hasn't that always been a requirement?

[HassleCat]

2. Why?

What is the utility of cursive writing?

[Lithos]

3. wistfulness

People think it's still in use today, despite the use of prevalence of technology (typing/keyboarding)

[citood]

6. Question: How do people sign their name if they can't write in cursive?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. I spent a surprising amount of time

trying to get my son who was born in 1987 to understand that he needed a cursive version of his signature.

In contrast, people from Mexico often have a very elaborate cursive signature. A cultural thing, I'm sure.

[Lithos]

13. It depends

You can usually still print your name for legal reasons, so a cursive form is not required. In fact, most signatures are really a "mark" as what is written down is usually illegible, even from adults who know cursive.

[HassleCat]

14. I could sign my name long before I wrote cursive.

When I was four years old, my mom wrote my name, and I copied it, as if drawing a picture. Anyway, a signature can be printed, and many are. These days, fraud rarely involves signature forgery, so it's a diminishing concern.

[LuvLoogie]

5. What is the utility of candles?

Cursive hand writing is unique to the individual. It takes more brain and motor effort. A font "e" is always the same font "e." whether it's in the middle of the word, the end of the word, side by side with another "e," or preceeded by a "b."

Signatures are often required as legal affirmation in documents and contracts. Forging a million signatures is likely harder than hacking a million passwords.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I do believe recent research has indicated that learning

cursive and using it regularly is a crucial part of brain development.

[Silver Gaia]

10. Yes, lots of reasons!

Hand/eye coordination, fine motor skills, to name a couple.

[TexasProgresive]

11. If you do it well, speed.

And then there is the ability to read primary sources of hand written documents in cursive.
Helps with developing manual dexterity.
Trains the eye and brain.
If someone only does block printing do they have a distinctive signature?

[Jake Stern]

4. Strange that schools are on this kick to require cursive again

but shutting down classes that are useful like Shop and Home Economics.

In Shop I learned the proper use and care of tools and how to do basic repairs. In Home Economics I learned cooking and housekeeping plus how to balance a checkbook. Cursive taught me how to write like my grandmother.

My mother and sister are the only people I know that regularly write in cursive. I hate it and my handwriting is undecipherable in cursive but very neat printed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. I never took shop, so I honestly haven't a clue to what extent

it might be useful.

I did have Home Ec in 7th and 8th grades, and did learn useful things in that class.

For what it's worth, my mother, who was born in 1916, and attended Catholic schools at least through 6th grade, was taught cursive at the very beginning. She did not learn non-cursive printing until she went to nursing school when she was 18. She was totally enamored of regular printing, and for the rest of her live wrote in a very readable combination of the two: cursive and printing.

I write in regular cursive most of the time, for what that is worth. But I also print almost as often.

[raccoon]

12. I don't think it's needed in this day and time. As a lefty, teachers

used to bitch at me about my handwriting. Well, duh, if you're left handed and using a right-handed desk--all that was available--what do you expect?