Hawaii No Longer Requires Teaching Cursive In Schools

Hawaii is joining several states across the country that are dropping cursive writing from mandatory school curriculum.

The Aloha state has adopted for this school year the national Common Core State Standards, a set of education standards that omits cursive but includes keyboard proficiency. Hawaii's former public school standards require that students can, by the fourth grade, write legibly and in cursive, the Star Advertiser reports.

Now, whether schools teach cursive will be at the principal's discretion -- and several school leaders have indicated their interest in continuing to teach the skill, according to the Star Advertiser.

Since the Common Core State Standards were introduced two years ago, 44 states have adopted the guidelines. Those states have also debated whether to keep cursive in their curriculum. Opponents of the move to eliminate cursive teaching from mandatory curriculum argue, for example, that having the skill develops children's ability to read. Supporters say the skill is archaic and unnecessary in the digital age.

Indiana in April elected to remove cursive from its official curriculum while other states are still deciding, though schools can also choose to reincorporate cursive teaching. Similarly, Illinois does not have cursive in its mandatory curriculum and allows school districts to set the standard, Pantagraph.com reports.

Comments

[Larkin31]

06:12 PM on 08/04/2011

I am a teacher and have long thought that teaching cursive is a waste of time. This has nothing to do with why students underperform (or over achieve). Indeed, cursive is an archaic form of elegant "hand", meant primarily to differentiate the educated elite from the brute masses and as an elegant style for official documents. It has nothing to do with intelligence or performance and is abandoned by (my guess) 95% of the population that learns it as soon as it is no longer required. Good riddens.

[NewBubba]

09:38 AM on 08/05/2011

What grade do you teach? Am I the only one who thinks cursive is FASTER than printing? Yes, yes, I know that typing is faster still. I have a rising 3rd grader. Her school, thankfully in my opinion, does teach cursive in 2nd-3rd grade in addition to keyboarding. She was initially excited by cursive...felt as though she were learning some secret code and doing something "grown-up." As a left handed kid, she struggles a bit but I love to watch her practice cursive. It does seem an odd mixture of art, craft and skill and takes a lot of patience (which is normally not required for other school work). I make her write thank-you notes for presents (am I the only one?) and cursive is still quicker than printing. I am an super-fast typist but still write my shopping lists in cursive, despite my iPhone. It's still quicker. Maybe I will open a KUMON school and add cursive as a course... I will feel satisfied by the elimination of cursive from US schools as soon as China, Japan, Singapore and other Asian countries drop the equivalent from their curriculum.

[Larkin31]

11:01 AM on 08/05/2011

I teach high school English. My wife teaches second grade. No one here teaches cursive or in any way cares about it except for the formality of something like wedding invitations, and these are of course printed by computers. You are of course free to value it and promote it in your home as much as you like. Nothing wrong with that.

[Wayne909]

04:17 PM on 08/04/2011

Why not eliminate cursive? Just about everything else has been eliminated or dumbed down. It can be added to the lack of effective instruction in basic math, reading, writing (term papers), history, geography, science, and civics.

Just like cursive, who really needs these things? You can use your calculator for math; look at the pictures instead of all that tedious reading or get it via an audio format on CD or online; creative or formalized writing certainly is irrelevant to twitter; geography - who needs to know what states look like and where they are - much less where places like Canada and Mexico are; unless you are going to be a chemist - why bother with science; civics - who really needs to know how the US government works - much less the definition of a democracy, representative republic, theocracy, etc.

Our education system has become very good at teaching self esteem, protecting children from the dangers of dodge ball and other physical activites, and imparting the belief that competition is a bad thing. It has become very bad at creating a well rounded individual capable of understaning his/her environment and equipping him/her with the basic tools needed to cope with that environment. To that, you can now add the inability the ability to sign (not print a signature) legal documents by not teaching cursive.

[DetCaptain]

06:43 PM on 08/03/2011

Clemenseau once said: "War is too important to be left to the generals", well seeing where our American education system is heading, it is time to consider that "Education is too important to be left to the teachers". Teachers are bored repeatedly teaching the same stuff, day in and day out, year in and year out. Well, move on then. Didn't you know that if you taught first grade you would be teaching 2 + 2 = 4 for the rest of your professional life? Let's get back to basics, reading, writing (including cursive) and arthmetic. Yes, we live in a digital age, so what? What do you do when the power goes out? Lazy teachers who cannot understand the nature of their work need to find new work. Teaching isn't brain surgery. If the teacher doesn't do a good job, there will be no brain surgeons down the road. Computers need data to do what they do. Teachers impart data. Repetitive data. Practice, practice, practice. Boring but absolutely essential. Please take the curricula decisions out of the hands of teachers. We have a broken educational system because the teachers have all the input, the teachers unions have far too much influence on what is taught and parents and basic logic are left out of the equation. Keep cursive in the schools. A high school graduate 50 years ago knew far more and was capable, for the most part, of functioning as an adult than the average college graduate today.

[WarrenPease]

04:13 PM on 08/04/2011

Teachers did not decide, collectively, to stop teaching cursive. National standards have been forced on the schools by No Child Left Behind and similar legislation.

"We have a broken educationa­l system because the teachers have all the input, the teachers unions have far too much influence on what is taught and parents and basic logic are left out of the equation."

Where, oh where, do you live? Please have more conversations with teachers. I converse with a teacher every day. The union I know is weak and feckless. The basic logic that you seek was cast aside, as schools were forced to teach to the standardized tests.

If you would like our public schools to return to traditional curricula and proven methods, you need to focus your energy toward the school board in your city or town.

[Varys]

05:26 PM on 08/03/2011

Learning to write in cursive is a very narrow topic to spend valuable class time on. There are no benefits to learning cursive unless you actually use it, and most people won't use it anyway. So I say dedicate that class time to something more valuable, like math, science, reading, writing or history. Our students don't need to be wasting time on penmanship.

[JStading]

09:12 AM on 08/04/2011

Most people may not use it, but it has major value (like learning how to read every document that's written in cursive).  For some people, like those with dyslexia, cursive can also substantially and instantly correct handwriting errors (e.g. b and d do not look anything alike in cursive, so reversals are far less common).

[benji85]

04:36 PM on 08/04/2011

I tend to use cursive for fast speaking professors, and note taking.

[madeashell]

05:01 PM on 08/03/2011

Hawaii can now join the list of ignorant states (Indiana and Texas). Legal documents require a signature (NOT printed), in cursive. One also must be able to read cursive as well as write no matter how well one can type on a keyboard to get a job. Certain jobs require being able write in cursive as well as type. Students are being short changed because of short minded, short thinking, running on the cheap state governments.

[Dylan Green]

03:49 PM on 08/03/2011

I've heard that cursive was developed to advance the homosexual agenda. Well done, Hawaii.

[Alexandra Cean]

10:20 PM on 08/03/2011

LOL!

[SWadlington]

03:35 PM on 08/03/2011

Give me a keyboard and I can write thousands of words. Give me a hammer, chisle and sheet of stone and you won't get much. I really understood just how great Bic pens are when I was in school in England in the 60's and had to use fountain pens that you constantly loaded from messy ink bottles. If we keep teaching all the skills of the past, there won't be enough time to teach the skills needed for tomarrow.

[WarrenPease]

04:16 PM on 08/04/2011

chisel

[Larkin31]

06:13 PM on 08/04/2011

agreed

[TrollHunter365]

03:11 PM on 08/03/2011

ask bill gates, Pres. Bush or matt damon if cursive is that important.........

[Bernie M]

03:31 PM on 08/03/2011

Three out of 300,000,000. Try again.

[WarrenPease]

04:17 PM on 08/04/2011

Ask Rupert Murdoch whether he has hair in his ears.

[bluehand]

12:24 PM on 08/03/2011

"Supporters say the skill is archaic and unnecessary in the digital age."

Next it'll be: printing is archaic in the digital age. Then no one will no how to write, spell, or form regular sentences. Hey, and do we really need math in the digital age, since our devices can do the math for us? We're right on schedule down the path to a great idiocracy. Beck must be so pleased.

[shadow90]

03:55 PM on 08/03/2011

thats not true. printing and know how to spell and proper grammar are two different things. even if someone never learns to print they still need to know how to spell words, form sentences and everything else otherwise you will just have a person hitting the keyboard like this jkdjkfdjkldfajklfjkfuiotjkfenklv. you can easily teach your kid how to write in cursive on your own time just print out some learning worksheets for them to do. but when they get to high school and collage they are going to have to type long essays. i learned to type back in highschool from a class that my mom made me take. best class i ever took.

[TarinF]

10:37 PM on 08/03/2011

Thanks, shadow90, for making the point for us. Your atrocious spelling, punctuation, and usage -- not to mention your aversion to capital letters -- speaks volumes.

[bluehand]

03:17 PM on 08/04/2011

Dear Shadow, unfortunately you type like someone who hasn’t printed, used cursive enough, as these skills help to develop better writing and typing skills. Notice I said HELP.

I type (quite well) on the computer, print, and use cursive every day work, and I believe kids can only benefit from the skill of cursive.

[kidjudas]

09:14 AM on 08/03/2011

The problem is if they don't touch on it as teens and keep the skill active it will dissolve as their teenage brains break down and reform towards adulthood. How many of you could play music or speak a foreign language as kids but then you dropped it before middle school and now you only remember fragments? But set that argument aside. On the SAT and ACT and PRAXIS exams is clearly states "write, do not print"- that translates "CURSIVE". I give my students options- all homework must be in cursive or typed. Printed gets returned and the student has to re-do it or it doesn't get entered in the grade book. Is it a hassle, sure. But I believe that cursive writing (and reading cursive) is a skill that enhances life. If we lose the ability to read cursive, we lose the ability to touch historical letters, family mementos, and other documents.

[bluehand]

12:26 PM on 08/03/2011

Co-sign!

[Dawn Castle]

09:05 AM on 08/03/2011

Sure let's give them carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion issues at an early age.

[EL Cooper]

08:48 AM on 08/03/2011

I believe cursive is being dropped because teachers don't have the skill. How can a teacher teach what they don't know? Oh, that applies to most teachers and the subjects they teach!

[kidjudas]

09:19 AM on 08/03/2011

I can see why you have 0 fans.

[EL Cooper]

12:10 PM on 08/03/2011

I'm ok with zero fans.

[Larkin31]

06:14 PM on 08/04/2011

Why this gratuitous slander? Seems really obnoxious.

[EL Cooper]

09:52 PM on 08/04/2011

The failure of NCLB, the cheating by teachers on exams for NCLB and the mass firing of teachers in RI is because they know their subject matter?

Guffaw!!

I'd rather be real and obnoxious any day. Does the shoe fit?

[Bernie M]

08:03 AM on 08/03/2011

At its simplest, learning cursive takes discipline. Discipline is transferable. We in America want short and fast utilitarian solutions that do not require discipline, which may be why some see little value in cursive writing. Unfortunately the nations we compete with still take the time to learn their writing systems, which require discipline. I watch the Chinese students I go to school with being very disciplined while many of the American student's can barely maintain focus for more than a minute or two.

[NewBubba]

09:51 AM on 08/03/2011

Ditto.

[TrollHunter365]

03:12 PM on 08/03/2011

there are far better ways to teach discipline than through cursive.

[Bernie M]

03:32 PM on 08/03/2011

Perhaps, thank you for naming, oh, zero.

[evan la]

09:29 AM on 08/13/2011

Yeah, but, cursive or other penmanship practice is mentally beneficial. Exercise for the brain. It's a fine discipline. Don't knock it.

[Angie Daniels]

04:19 AM on 08/03/2011

I realize that my "daycare" (aka Grandma) made me learn to read in kindergarten and cursive was over the summer.. not during public school. She would've been a good teacher, but a bit harsh for anyone who wasn't expecting Black Grandma 101. So for anyone I'd talked to regarding 1st grade cursive.. my bro, sis and I HAD to learn it or we'd have sore bottoms lol. God bless WWII survivor grandparents.

[chatnuptime1]

05:52 AM on 08/03/2011

Angie.. lol on black grandma101... which entails do as your told... or get a headache, or a bottom ache. Now the reasoning of this writing elimination is because we live in the digital age where writing is rendered useless. Well we have calculators..so why do we need to know what 4x4 is? We live in the computer age where computers are programmed to read to us if we like... so why learn to read? If we keep making excuses for not learning.. the three r's will be nule and void and they can just put kids back to work again, hand them an i pad and calculator and reader and send them off. Shut down all the schools and save the states even more money.. The logic of these people astounds me really.

[TigerArmyNeverDie]

03:58 AM on 08/03/2011

yet another sign of how crappy american primary education is becoming.