If you want to talk about what 'should' be taught in public schools (i.e. if your interest is policy rather than politics) then the _first_ priority is a radical reduction in the hours students spend in school. (After all, 'school" once meant 'leisure'.) If you want to talk _politics_, then the first concern is to reduce the working hours of teachers. Art classes in grade school give classroom teachers a break; they also serve as a substitute for WPA for art majors. But no classroom teacher should have art or music etc on her/his load.
There is certainly no reason to fill up school hours with cursive. If an obsolete skill is to be taught, what about slide rules or the abacus.
Carrol
P.S. Probably they should be taught how to sign their names in cursive -- to sign credit card receipts etc.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On
> Behalf Of Gar Lipow
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 3:45 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The death of cursive....
>
> On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 11:07 AM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> > OK. but this discussion started around an article debating whether
cursive
> should be taught in schools.
> >
> > If they decide to not teach it, each person cannot decide what works
best
> because if you can't write cursive, you have no grounds for the decision.
>
>
> I think at the very least we need to retain the ability to read
> cursive, just because it is the form in which the originals of much
> our world's history exists. I'm not sure about teaching the ability
> to write cursive ... In practice it is something I could not learn,
> but there is probably no academic skill someone will be unable to
> learn. I would say that it is a skill that is not essential either
> in practical term for most, or an important pathway to learning to
> think. So perhaps it should go the way of other obscure skills that
> are learned by a few who are interested. I have a friend who
> practices calligraphy. She makes beautiful manuscripts. But she
> learned it as a hobby. It was not mandatory in school. In terms of
> learning handwriting as a path to appreciation of beauty, I would
> suggest that reversing the deprecation and often elimination of art
> and music in schools is much higher priority than retaining mandatory
> cursive. I also wonder if cursive is a skill best taught young.
> Unlike basic reading and writing,it may be better acquired as an adult
> the way my friend acquired calligraphy. Heck, if you think it
> important that it be taught to kids, I could see a bigger argument
> for offering calligraphy as an optional part of an arts curriculum
> than teaching plain old cursive. You get the ability to produce
> something truly beautiful and learn cursive as a side effect. I'll
> bet a large minority of kids would be interested, and those who were
> not could concentrate on something else.
> >
> > Joanna