Cursive vs Printing vs Keyboarding

E has been steadily learning and practicing her cursive writing. She actually does quite well. While she still labors with anything hand-written, cursive not only speeds her along a LITTLE bit, it is also much more legible...pretty actually. It has been all over the news lately that public schools in 41 states are doing away with cursive, and children will no longer be required to learn it. While I have only recently started seeing news stories about this issue, it has been a topic of debate among home schoolers for at least the past 3 or 4 years. If they can not WRITE cursive,how will they ever learn to READ cursive? Remember, most Americans use cursive as their primary form of writing, and even if they have phased cursive out of the public schools, I feel children should still learn it; if nothing else they need to be able to READ what other people write. And how will they sign their names?

All 3 of my older daughters prefer to print. However, they CAN read and write cursive, and did so for several years until they were of middle school age and allowed to choose. The public schools now feel that cursive is becoming obsolete due to computers and e-mail, cell phones and texts. While I feel it IS important to learn to type, I don't feel children should rely on typing until they can write by hand well, in EITHER form....printing or cursive. My children all learned cursive in 2nd grade...E is a few months behind, as she is going into 3rd grade, but that is due to her possible dysgraphia issues. C is going into 7th grade, and thus far I only allow her to type e-mails (of course) and final drafts of reports or major writing assignments. She is learning to type as she goes, although I will hopefully be able to afford to get her a formal "keyboard" curriculum by the time she is in 9th grade. By 9th grade she will have been printing for 10 years, and writing in cursive for 6. She will have no trouble reverting to whichever form of handwriting she prefers by then, and by 9th grade she will have a true NEED to learn to get around proficiently on the keyboard for lengthier and more frequent writing assignments. For now, though, I prefer to let the computer be used only for "special" assignments, and final drafts. Sort of like I allow the internet to be used only for research on those same types of assignments, and things such as real books and encyclopedias for most of her research.

So while I am all for children learning to type and be proficient on a keyboard, my opinion is that they should FIRST be proficient at good old-fashioned printing and cursive, and have several years of both under their belts before taking the "easy" way out and typing everything.