What do you consider being physically able to write?

[Seraphim]

More and more young people don't write cursive these days, it's kind of a dying art, so your mom's thinking on this is just daft and outdated.

 

Next time she tries telling you your son's illiterate, just tell her that the world is passing her by

Lol........

[journeynow]

Cursive is still on the books here in Ontario but in other provinces it's gone . However, many teachers say they don't have time to teach it so they just don't. They were still teaching cursive when my son was in grade school though . And at the time they told me it's something he would never learn to do . Unfortunately ,he also cannot read cursive . So anything written by grandparents or more middle-age or older family relatives he can't read . We all write cursive automatically because it was beaten into our head sometimes almost literally . I have had family relatives who were actually beaten at school so they would write properly and beaten because they were left handed.

 

Kids do have a lot they have to learn at an earlier age than I remember learning them. As for cursive, I grew up thinking it was a sign of maturity to write cursive, since that's what I thought adults do. However, it wasn't until years into my own adulthood that I realized my dad tended to print instead of write cursive (he said it was neater and easier to read) and my husband preferred printing to cursive. Then when my sons printed into their high school years and said that was the norm (and found my cursive writing hard to read) I was dismayed. What happened to the world, cursive isn't the bedrock of society that I thought is was! In high school my mom brought out some ancient handwritten family letters from the civil war era, and they used a different type of penmanship, which I (a cursive practitioner) found hard to read. Apparently, handwriting, like spoken language, evolves over time. (Sigh. I'm showing my age, I suppose.)

[luminousone]

I hear you, JN. I do remember how excited I was to learn cursive finally. My older brother's were all amused when I said I could write cursive, but all I did was write a bunch of loops, lol. I wanted to be just like them.

 

And we had to learn it with those blasted fountain pens with cartridges. I always had blue ink all over my fingers, and often spots of ink on my clothes.

 

I was taught with the Zaner-Bloser (ignore my autocorrect typo in my previous post here) method, but when my older son went to school they had started to teach the D'Nealian style, which had them curl up the letters on the bottom. Almost a cross between cursive and printing. The rationale (they told me) was that it would be an easier transition to cursive, or even an alternative to it.

 

I've never liked my son's handwriting - he will admit it is awful. And our schools use something different now. But I do think that it is left up to the teacher whether to fit in that kind of instruction.

 

It is a dying art, truly.

[j.man]

I was taught cursive in school and I do write it well. It was useless then and remains so now. If I want to write the most legibly I possibly can, I print. If I want to write the quickest I can, I type or use short hand (which really should be taught instead of cursive if they're gonna go that route). My natural tendency is to write in a combination of print and cursive.

 

So, yes, your son can write. Your mother is just having an "agghhh, this isn't music!" moment that older folks (I'm sure including myself when I get there) simply have, though I admit essentially calling him illiterate is on the meaner side.

[Seraphim]

I was taught cursive as well J man. Now I only pretty much print. It's easier. Yeah she's just showing age. She would never ever tell him he is illiterate. She tells me, which is almost as hurtful.