I have mixed feelings about this one: No More Cursive Handwriting

[EowynCarter]

Even if you can use computer most of times, what about these times where you can't replace pen and paper ?

School for one. Meetings at work, still haven't found something more effective than good old paper and pen.

[wyndslash]

it's not good to make children so dependent on technology :| technology is dependent on our resources, and they are definitely not unlimited. why do you think we have the various wars going on? definitely not to save lives, but to protect the interests of the powerful nations @_@

[Mortis]

I agree, when I was a kid I had a rock and a stick to play with, we were happy, we didn't know any better

Seriously I think that we need to keep something going from the past, if for no better reason than to teach our children something they can do other than immerse themselves in technology.

[wyndslash]

@mortis: in a way there's something to be said about growing up in a supposedly 3rd world country. we still get taught to do things the hard way. sometimes i think that's a good thing. my sister, when she was getting her nursing degree, were taught how to do things manually instead of relying on machines to do most of the work like in the most developed nations. of course, there's something to be said about them being allowed to work on dying patients in hospitals. it's such a painful irony; that experience, afforded to the nurses and doctors of our country, are why they are prized and continuously snatched by the top hospitals in foreign countries, yet said foreign countries wouldn't allow their nurses/doctors to work on patients as extensively as they do here. i find it sad that it's done at our expense, but that's life, i suppose.

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

yet said foreign countries wouldn't allow their nurses/doctors to work on patients as extensively as they do here.

Where's here wyndslash? (just trying to get a handle on the comment)

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Where's here wyndslash? (just trying to get a handle on the comment)

philippines. most patients who get sent to the public hospitals here usually die or on their way. the doctors and nurses are allowed to practice on them (okay, that sounds bad, but i didn't mean it that way. sort of like practicum. plus, lack of staff and sufficient equipment are also the reasons, i suppose. it's not uncommon to let a patient use a bed that a woman has just used earlier to give birth on) as much as is needed. my sister, like many others getting their nursing degrees, usually are shuffled to many hospitals around the city, but the story is usually just the same. of course, the really expensive hospitals don't allow interns to even touch the patients, and the patients, if they feel that their nurses are not nice enough, can get them fired :|

still, the majority of the nurses and doctors here who graduate from here are already well practiced. then they get pirated to the foreign countries :| course now they've stopped hiring nurses and doctors abroad so they're just all overflowing here. not enough hospitals to hire them and even then, the hospitals don't get enough money for their own needs much less pay their employees. what usually happens is the nurses who want formal experience pay the hospitals to "volunteer" there.

but going back to the topic on hand, it's why i believe that the basics should be taught. you just don't know when you're going to find yourself in a situation where you can't rely on technology (such as in a blackout)

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Even if you can use computer most of times, what about these times where you can't replace pen and paper ?

School for one. Meetings at work, still haven't found something more effective than good old paper and pen.

I haven't heard about anyone getting rid of pen and paper? Have you?

[DuncanWatson]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

I'm old school-- for me, cursive is writing. Text written in block letters looks like the writing of kindergartners. The loss of cursive is, IMHO, dumbing down education and dumbing down students so that they are no longer able to write like adults.

I do write like an adult, on a computer like almost all adults. Printing is more readable and easier to learn. There is a reason why it was always the first step for literacy. Cursive writing is archaic and only an impediment to generations following us who might try to read what we left behind.

I mourn the loss of art and music classes in public schools. I mourn the legislated teaching of anti-science in public schools. I celebrate the deserved death of cursive.

[simulacrum]

Originally Posted by DuncanWatson

Printing is more readable

Bad writing is not readable. Good writing is easily readable. If someone's handwriting is bad in cursive, it's because for some reason they started with print and never adapted to cursive properly.. in short they have bad handwriting.

and easier to learn.

I never really understood this. Cursive is just as easy to learn as print. Of course if kids are taught to write in print, then forced to cancel all that muscle memory and relearn to write all the letters in cursive they'll find the task pointless, arbitrary and difficult in the sense that it is difficult to learn any arbitrary, and seemingly pointless process. If the first time kids pick up a pen to write they are taught to write in cursive, as I was, they won't find it difficult. They'll have better, faster writing and they might pick up increase their patience and discipline - skill that will help them pick up maths, and later science.

In a sense though I don't think it's a big deal because I gave up on public education a long time ago. To my mind, these days any child whose parent has left the job of education totally to the school has a far smaller chance of being successful academically.

[spaze]

They will teach kids how to type on computers and then 30 years later these kids find a cool application for iPad 25 in which you can practice ancient way of writing things with a thing called a "stylus" or a "pen".

Just like people discovered black and white photography with digital cameras

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by spaze

They will teach kids how to type on computers and then 30 years later these kids find a cool application for iPad 25 in which you can practice ancient way of writing things with a thing called a "stylus" or a "pen".

Just like people discovered black and white photography with digital cameras

haha, exactly! :P well, what comes around goes around it's like fashion, i guess

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Mortis

I agree, when I was a kid I had a rock and a stick to play with, we were happy, we didn't know any better

by 'eck lad, when I were a lad we only had dirt and water to play with ....

[kennyc]

Mmmmm, mudpies!

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Mmmmm, mudpies!

[Mortis]

You get mud pies from that, my first thought was...

I have to mention that it is rather hard to find one thats NSFW