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Wallace Sellars Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 01 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 17852
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| Posted: 26 September 2026 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | 1
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As a career educator, I am constantly thinking about many of the things mentioned in this thread.
My current school has been using Chromebooks for most academic instruction for years, but we are now significantly reducing the amount of screen time students receive in classes. (State-mandated assessments are computer-based though, and students have to use educational technology often enough to be comfortable for that.)
I recently saw a student with a physical book try to swipe up with a finger, catch himself mid-second swipe, then turn the page.
Just yesterday I challenged two kids who were asking me about cursive to learn it. We’ll see how that goes.
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James Woodcock Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 21 September 2007 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 8689
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| Posted: 26 September 2026 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | 2
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Nobody seems to know how to handwrite in cursive anymore. —————————- Hence the stylus. They write cursive and are expected to do so with their stylus.
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Steven Myers Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 10 June 2004 Location: United States Posts: 5765
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 12:18am | IP Logged | 3
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I have students write in cursive on their art papers. Honestly, I can't read most of it. But I can barely read my own cursive. I gave up on cursive in Jr. High and found that, years later, I had a hard time remembering how to even make the letters. I don't think cursive is a life skill. I do still think we should teach kids to reach analog clocks though. You still see plenty of those!
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Bill Collins Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 26 May 2005 Location: England Posts: 11714
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 6:46am | IP Logged | 4
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I am not a fan of cursive. I find it slows my reading down, and i often can't read it at all depending on who has written it. I wasn't keen on it's use in Batman Year One, i understand why it was used, but it jarred with the usually easy to read comic type. As a form of written communication i think purposely making it unclear makes no sense!
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Evan S. Kurtz Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 04 July 2022 Location: Canada Posts: 454
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | 5
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From my understanding, the benefits of cursive come when it is taught in the younger grades, where it helps young minds develop their working memory, language fluency, and fine motor skills. It requires kids to be more active in their writing, which has a positive effect on their retainment of information.
Cursive is also beneficial for kids with dyslexia, particularly because the structure of cursive lettering has far fewer letters that can be commonly "reversed."
We were mandated to teach cursive by our government a few years back. To be honest, I only make a half-assed attempt. There are just so many other deficits in these kids in 5th and 6th grade, it feels like I'm trying to put out a house fire with a garden hose.
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Steven Myers Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 10 June 2004 Location: United States Posts: 5765
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 6
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Concerning screens in school. My state banned cell phones during school hours, except when used for educational or medical purposes. No change for me since my elementary school never allowed kids to have phones during the day. The disappointing result of this is that the biggest pushback has come from parents. They are obsessed with having access to their teens/tweens at all times, and want them to carry phones so they can text them all day long, even during class...
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Vinny Valenti Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 17 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 8703
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | 7
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I came across an old letter from my mom years after she passed away, and I was struck by how *beautiful* her cursive handwriting was. It could almost have been considered calligraphy, but to her it was just the way she wrote every day. Every letter had an impeccable consistency and structure.
It made me sad to see - because she never made anything of herself, but I could see that she had an artistic side that she was never encouraged to tap into. I wish I took more notice while she was still alive, but it took me time to be detached from it to realize how special it was. I've been complimented on my own handwriting, and clearly I was influenced my her style, but still I can't hold a candle to it.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 137143
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | 8
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My own mother had extraordinarily elaborate cursive handwriting. Thing is, it wasn’t an affectation on her part. It was simply the way she’d been taught in the ‘20s, and it had stuck with her throughout her life. In contrast, my father’s cursive was a barely legible scrawl. His family was of a lower social class than my mother’s, and he had gone to a less impressive school. He worked hard his whole life to escape his background. But his handwriting never improved.
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James Woodcock Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 21 September 2007 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 8689
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | 9
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My mum’s was also elaborate. My dad’s was terrible. Mine is terrible, while my wife’ I’d beautiful. My son’s is terrible.
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Evan S. Kurtz Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 04 July 2022 Location: Canada Posts: 454
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| Posted: 27 September 2026 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | 10
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I recall a few years back, the Library of Congress was looking for volunteers who knew how to read cursive because that too was a dying skill. Dad brag moment: one of the early indicators we had about my son’s intelligence was how, as a kindergartener, he could read cursive as easily as print.
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