In the 24 conferences I had last week, several parents brought up their child’s handwriting. A few asked, “Do you teach cursive?”
I gave them our standard 6th grade answer: Yes, their work should be neat. No, we don’t teach cursive – we ask that they use whichever form of writing is neatest.
During one conference I had a sudden realization. The papers each of the three Core teachers had prepared perfectly illustrated my point. The Math teacher printed his comments by hand, in red pen. The Science teacher wrote hers on the computer, in Apple Chancery, a friendly font. My comments were written in cursive, green ink on green paper. They perfectly illustrated the point I was trying to make.
booksandbassets 
I love other people’s handwriting but not my own!
Everyone has their own style though don’t they?
Thanks for this post…our conferences are tomorrow evening!
Neatness, readability… that’s the key. How to achieve it… not always so simple. Handwriting- whether manuscript or cursive, doesn’t get much instruction time… and a lot of students have a hard time with neatness. Technology is getting more attention… but keyboarding skills seem to be hit and miss. I’ve seen a lot of students who will have a hard time mastering typing after years of hunt and peck.
That’s interesting, noticing the varied uses among you and your colleagues. It seems I see fewer and fewer exemplars of handwritten anything that pass as correspondence between myself and colleagues or parents. Thanks for sharing your revelation.
Isn’t it interesting that the question of cursive keeps coming up even though the parents probably type most of their texts rather than write with a pen or pencil?
Parent conferences are always exhausting. Congrats for getting them done.
I recently bought a new iPad with an Apple pencil because I experience writing– and thinking– differently when I’m doing it by hand. I can convert the handwritten text to typed text and store it with other notes. My husband, a computer nerd and way-fast typist, and I were commenting the other night on how much faster it can be to hand write during a conference or lecture. I wish we would move out of a black-white culture when it comes to teaching and living in a digital world. Then it might be easier to figure out who should be responsible for teaching cursive.
I am the first to admit that my cursive leaves lots to be desired. I am sure the nuns would slap my knuckles with a ruler if they saw it. Readability definitely counts. So many things can be misconstrued if someone misinterprets what another has written.
I’m still old school in that I prefer to write in cursive. However, I don’t think anyone needs to write in cursive all of the time. That said, it is good to learn it in elementary school just in case it becomes the preferred form of writing.
I like the serendipitous noticing around which your slice revolves.