Cursing coerced cursive

 

In past ages humans communicated by word of mouth and storytelling was a sought after and highly valued skill for that reason - a storyteller who spoke well was an oral historian, a newsreader and a communicator of social values.  Storytelling was aided by dance, mime and other 'theatre' and the skills of performers were also highly valued.  They interpreted history and current affairs and also communicated social values.

 

Humans then developed literacy skills and those who could read and write were valued.  They wrote the history and the news and their opinions both communicated and influenced social values.  Writing and reading have been the main communications network for several centuries now and storytelling, dance, mime etc have fallen by the wayside - they are not skills that our schoolchildren are either taught or taught to value.  Even speaking skills have been downgraded in many countries, our own included and as a result most British children find themselves tongue tied and stumbling if asked to give their views. 

 

Writing by hand is on the way out.  Think when you last wrote anything by hand - do you still have a milkman to write billets doux to?  Do you handwrite your Tesco Online shopping list? Do you handwrite letters to your bank or your siblings?  Do you even sign cheques since the advent of chip and pin?  At a guess the only time that many of us use a pen is to sign a greetings card - and even then many of us send e-cards - and most men don't even do that. 

We use keyboards or we text on our mobile phones, and those are the principal means of textual communication.  Books and poems, journals and memos, calendars and banking withdrawal 'slips' are all now typed on a keyboard.  It's keyboard skills which play a large and ever increasing part in our dealings with the worlds of both work and leisure and imo should be an integral feature of every classroom and every homework assignment.

 

Why then do you imagine the government is suggesting that every child in the land be taught and regularly have practise lessons in just the one 'national state school' form of handwriting?  Even they admit that they're principally concerned about pupils' abilities to write legibly and quickly in examinations but does that mean that each and every child must be taught the writing style that some government department decides is 'best'?  What does an italic or cursive 'hand' contribute towards a child's intellectual expression or future prospects?  Why should an examinee have to concern themselves about stylistic writing rather than on the content of their exam answers?

 

When the notoriously challenging Year 9 pupils ask why they're having to practise handwriting all the time like infant school children, how can their teachers answer?  Because some government minister with an antediluvian mindframe thinks it would be good if you all wrote in the same characterless style.  Well, Year 9 will fall to with a will once they hear that.  Not.