We spent a great evening last night with a couple friends and their families. While our guys are in college (whoo hoo.. one almost out), they have younger families pre- and elementary school aged.

As per our usual, there was much discussion about family and kids and of course school. I was surprised to discover that cursive writing has been removed (or seriously cut back) from the school curriculum. In full disclosure, I haven’t confirmed that with any educator friends, but felt the need to chat about this travesty… But is it?

On one side of the coin, my older son would have been relieved of the torture of his handwriting and it’s impact on his early learning… I think the teachers were just being nice not inserting a great big “F” in that box on his report card.   As one friend shared, really… it will all be electronic in a few years. Initially that struck me as a little bizarre… until pondering my own handwriting… which so many people complain about but is an upscale version of printing. Except…

The other side of the coin was brought up by another friend.. These kids don’t know how to sign their name, a signature in the appropriate box. The example she talked about was having to sign a form for working papers. Another friend spent a couple hours teaching them. Interesting…

Something to think about… Doesn’t have to be cursive… I guess…

What do you think?