Why Can Children No Longer Hold Their
Pencils Correctly?
Intellectual Takeout,
by
Annie Holmquist
Original Article
Posted By: GustoGrabber,
3/3/2022 5:40:54 AM
In recent years, a number of parents and grandparents have discovered an alarming trend: children no longer know how to write in cursive.
Such a discovery led to a considerable backlash against programs such as Common Core, which many viewed as the culprit squeezing out cursive instruction. Thanks to increased attention on the subject, many states have implemented laws mandating that cursive be taught in school.
But what happens when children begin to learn cursive and can’t hold their pencil properly?
Amazingly, this is the growing reality in a number of countries. The Guardian explains:
Reply 1 - Posted by:
franq 3/3/2022 6:03:24 AM (No. 1088269)
Put 'em on a cell phone and watch their fingers fly. Basic life skills are being neglected in education.
Lord help us.
26 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Rich323 3/3/2022 6:19:00 AM (No. 1088278)
Hence the push for digital passports and implanted chipping for identification. Hence they be known by the number on the beast. Sound familiar? If not, you better buy the best selling book of all time.
22 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 3/3/2022 6:23:44 AM (No. 1088282)
When they sign their name with an X, does it really matter?
16 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Krause 3/3/2022 7:16:28 AM (No. 1088301)
Democrats want everyone to be as dumb as they are.
23 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Red Jeep 3/3/2022 7:19:55 AM (No. 1088304)
Also children today can't tell time on an analog clock.
26 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
FunOne 3/3/2022 7:40:36 AM (No. 1088317)
On the flip side--as chronologically gifted persons (senior citizens), we should feel empowered that we know cursive. It means we can communicate among ourselves in a code that younger people cannot decipher.
25 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
homefry 3/3/2022 7:43:08 AM (No. 1088321)
BUT BUT BUT!!!! Cursive is hard, so said the witness for trayvon.
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Quigley 3/3/2022 7:45:37 AM (No. 1088323)
Let’s hope it’s not important. They don’t know how to use a slide rule or how ride a horse. But I believe i correctly understand that some skills are foundational. I’ve ever heard a rationale for the curriculum change.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
BeatleJeff 3/3/2022 7:46:53 AM (No. 1088324)
I've never been able to hold my pencil correctly, but then I have muscular dystrophy, so I just adapted to a method that works for me.
5 people like this.
Thanks for posting. A mom told me the other day that the only cursive her kid is learning in school is his signature. Fascinating premise about carpal muscle development and coordination during the beginning years and button-pushing's impact on critical thinking. Just like ones and zeroes, life becomes nothing but right/wrong, us/them. No in-between or rationale. Scarey.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
czechlist 3/3/2022 8:25:51 AM (No. 1088366)
I am in my 70s. When I wrote essays in high school and college my cursive was so poor my instructors allowed me to print. It was much more difficult but legible.
I receive compliments on my abbreviated signature but struggle when I have to sign my full name
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
montwoodcliff 3/3/2022 8:28:58 AM (No. 1088369)
This article is wrong, wrong , wrong! The reason kids don’t know how to hold a pencil is because they aren’t thought penmanship. Penmanship, as it was called in Grades 1-3 way back in my youth, was deemed unnecessary back in the early fifties. I’m old enough to remember the “Palmer Method” where we practiced how to hold a pencil and make loops and swirls to march the alphabet cards that ran above the blackboard. My sons, average age 50, still have the same scrawl they did in the second grade, and that was long before computers! Remember Obama's Treasury Secretary who couldn’t sign his name for our currency? So it’s not technology, but the education system that has led to the downfall of cursive writing, and don’t anyone tell me different.
23 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
jalo1951 3/3/2022 8:35:06 AM (No. 1088376)
I have worked in the educational field for going on 32 years. This problem is so much worse than you think. When a student comes to check out a book and forgets their ID I have them write their number on a slip of paper. With so many students speaking so many different languages and all have their own accents I simply cannot understand what numbers they are giving me. About a third of the time I have to ask the student to please rewrite their numbers because I cannot read them. It is pretty sad. When I ran the math lab I would turn off the function of multiplying and dividing . They had to know their number facts. We actually had an assistant superintendent suggest that we no longer needed to drill math facts, it just wasn't necessary any longer. After all everyone had access to a calculator in some form. When the kids complained I would tell them that I did use a calculator to balance my checkbook. But, if I could not find my calculator or the batteries were dead I could still do the task old school. They are being taught to write their names in cursive only, true. They also no longer color or use scissors. All skills that help strengthen your hands. We all know how much stronger our favored hand is over the other. Learning to write cursive leads to one's ability to read cursive. All our historical documents are in cursive. I suggest you hand a copy of the original Constitution and see how much they can read. Yes, I am old school. But I can remember learning cursive from a writing teacher twice a week. Like letters were grouped together and we would write pages of those letters. Learning the flow, the structure, learning to attach these letters together to form cursive words. All the while using those muscles. Cursive was taught in the 3rd grade and we couldn't wait. Kids today cannot even print well.
29 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/3/2022 8:36:44 AM (No. 1088378)
That's not all they can't do. The Communist School System has their own itinerary and there is no room for nonsense like writing, math, patriotism, religion, etc. The kiddies all know their entitlements and the Nazi salute, things that will come in handy in their futures.
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
TLCary 3/3/2022 8:56:05 AM (No. 1088402)
My kids penmanship produces what looks like hieroglyphics. I guess they will be fine if they become computer programmers, or possibly Egyptologists.
2 people like this.
The real purpose - in future generations no one will be able to read the constitution as it was written!
(My grandson taught himself cursive.)
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 3/3/2022 9:02:53 AM (No. 1088411)
Same age as #11 but reversed on cursive. When young my writing was beautiful and deteriorated over the years. My signature is unreadable. I mostly print now. But, if I take my time and write slow I can still write cursive well. I just don’t get why it is not taught unless it is just the teachers being lazy.
2 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
lakerman1 3/3/2022 9:04:39 AM (No. 1088414)
The iconic lakerman, (that would be me) in 1944, at age 5, began first grade in a two room schoolhou8se in Erie County, Pennsylvania.
At the point of entry, he knew his alphabet, knew basic math, and could read and print.
How did that happen? Much of it was self-taught, the remaining skills inculcated by the iconic Lakerman's evil big sister.
What was the one skill (other than patience with others) that he did not have? Cursive writing.
Why not cursive writing? Because the iconic Lakerman is left handed, and that Peterson stuff doesn't work for left handers, unless one writes backwards.
One can only speculate about the amount of psychologicasl trauma suffered by those of us who are left handed.
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 3/3/2022 9:51:22 AM (No. 1088491)
Like #18, I, too am left handed. However, in 2nd grade, I was blessed with a teacher who was also left handed, Mrs. Lenard. She told me that she was going to teach me how to hold my pencil so that my writing was readable and also so I didn't end up with "smudge pinkie" from dragging my pinkie on the paper. My handwriting is neat and legible and I have had instructors comment on it several times. I do print most things (architectural habit), but if I am addressing Christmas cards, writing letters or shopping lists or other personal tasks, I use my cursive.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
red1066 3/3/2022 10:00:00 AM (No. 1088498)
This isn't new. I have nieces and nephews in their late twenties whose writing looks like a second grader. Not only can they not write in cursive, but they can't read cursive either. I specifically remember having penmanship class in 6th grade. The kids today don't know history, math, science and they can't write. What exactly are they being graded on in school?
7 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
udanja99 3/3/2022 10:09:30 AM (No. 1088512)
#7’s memory went right to the same place that mine went. I was stunned when Trayvon’s supposed girlfriend was handed that sheet of paper while on the witness stand and admitted that she couldn’t read cursive.
My millennial daughter writes in beautiful cursive but then, she, like my husband, was taught by nuns.
As for me, I’m like #17. But the deterioration of my cursive is due to having arthritis in both hands. I’ve had surgery which has helped, but I still rely on printing and use cursive only for my signature.
5 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Edgelady 3/3/2022 10:23:11 AM (No. 1088529)
I have been talking about this for more than 20 years - a big mistake by our "educational betters". If one can't write cursive, one can't read it, either. This means my grandchildren are not able to read the letters my father wrote to my mother during WWII when he flew The Hump. They can't do research on historical documents, they don't have the dexterity in their hands, nor the cognitive associations a brain makes when writing cursive. It shows that educators can be enormously short-sighted over things that seem simple, but are not.
6 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
cheeflo 3/3/2022 10:23:47 AM (No. 1088531)
I used to produce marketing collateral in the graphic arts department of a major garment manufacturer. For the women’s line we used a script typeface about which the head of sales commented that his kids couldn’t read script ... too much like cursive.
3 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 3/3/2022 10:39:07 AM (No. 1088565)
I remember in second grade in 1954 the upper- and lower-case cursive letters over the blackboard then writing lines of each letter. Everyone took pride to writing them neatly. We all had very nice handwritings except for maybe on 'Little Johnny' in the back of the class. In my seventies now my handwriting has deteriorated with a mixture of printed letters (because of the oilfield it's how we had to label things). Now I'm shaky when writing but now I feel we are in a secret organization like having a car with manual transmission it will never be stolen or carjacked because it's not taught any longer.
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
DVC 3/3/2022 10:42:10 AM (No. 1088570)
Playing video games is a very poor training ground for functioning in the real world.
6 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
felixcat 3/3/2022 11:26:01 AM (No. 1088611)
My fourth grade teacher at a govt owned school in South Florida taught penmanship along with reading, etc. She was a Cuban American and very strict with all her students regardless of skin color but an excellent teacher. Of course, this was the early 1970s. Anyway, I always received a "C" in penmanship from her because I wouldn't/couldn't make the cursive Q look like the 2.
2 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
cThree 3/3/2022 11:30:09 AM (No. 1088615)
I'm a retired teacher; I was furious that cursive was dropped, and the children were unhappy, too. For them it was "writing like grown-ups." Some teachers taught cursive after school on their own time.
Pedagogues are wreaking havoc in countless ways on our curriculums, such as trimming the "times table" and re-writing classic fairy tales to promote contemporary virtues. Most examples would be hard to describe in this format on Lucianne, but it's desperately worth our time and attention.
And it's not just school curriculums. "Convenience" is robbing our kids of coping skills we take for granted. One small example: Children are losing is the fine motor skill needed to tie shoes, or knots generally. It's not just cursive. . . .
Here's an assignment, class: Teach your children and grandchildren to twiddle their thumbs.
3 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
nelsonted1 3/3/2022 11:39:01 AM (No. 1088622)
Mom would say the reason Drs handwriting was always so awful - she was a nurse - is due to taking notes in med school. It was a drag race between the lecturer speaking and the students note taking. I, secretly, think Drs rotten handwriting is a conspiracy.
4 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
udanja99 3/3/2022 1:45:40 PM (No. 1088782)
Thanks for that about car transmissions, #24. In 2020 I bought my second Mini Cooper with a manual transmission. I had to have it specially made in the UK because almost no one makes manuals any longer. I have never owned an automatic and will keep driving my manual until my knees give out and I can’t push the clutch all the way to the floor.
When our millennial daughter was learning to drive, we taught her on a manual. She didn’t like having to do it but we told her that someday it might be useful because she would be able to drive any vehicle.
4 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
3XALADY 3/3/2022 3:16:05 PM (No. 1088883)
I was taught cursive writing in grade school and have noticed how kids hold their pencils - and forks and spoons. I'd like to share about my shorthand education. First semester, six pages of homework front and back every night. Second semester, add six pages. All the way thru the year, at the end doing 24 pages front and back every night. I didn't use it for 18 years after graduation. Then I took a job with an attorney who didn't use dictation equipment. I still had a shorthand book and was able to review, so within about 2 weeks I was sitting in front of attorney's desk filling books with his dictation of pleadings. I'm 77 years old and can still read some of it today and still use some when making notes.
4 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
Faithfully 3/3/2022 4:57:58 PM (No. 1088970)
At my last workplace in the 90's the university graduates complained that I, as a lowly receptionist wrote messages in neat script. It was faster to do but those kids could not read script. I bet they are still paying off their student loans. lol!
3 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
broken01 3/24/2022 12:45:34 PM (No. 1108763)
I remember in first grade I was taught how to hold a pencil correctly. I was taught how to right in cursive in third grade by Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Brown. We had a coat room, black board, individual desks with the top and place to keep your books. We also had the alphabet posted up front in cursive and regular. My cursive and print were such that I was teased for "writing like a girl." I didn't care as I was really proud of myself. Forgive me for going down memory lane but I had a ball in school in an age where there were no cell phones. All of the fun stuff is being phased out of school and crap like CRT and trans genderism is being put in it's place and the disservice being done to today's kids will be felt for generations.
2 people like this.
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