The Czech school system decided to make a radical change and substitute cursive letters with the so-called Comenia Script. The letters are similar to printing letters and much easier to write. The teachers, however, are divided into two camps of thought: one side says that learning how to write with cursive letters promotes a better brain development; the other side claims that many children have problems learning it, therefore their self-esteem goes out the window. The latter idea is also supported by Petr Poethe, the Czech psychiatrist, who adds: “Some countries like USA or GB have not been using cursive writing for some time now and they are not dumber than us, are they?….It is also a nonsense for an older child to be getting lower grades for an otherwise perfectly written essay because his handwriting wasn’t neat enough”.
Some people also support the idea that even if one has a nice cursive handwriting, foreign countries will not be able to read it since nobody there is used to reading such ‘old-fashioned’ alphabet anymore.
According to the recent iDNES.cz poll, 2077 participants were for the new style of writing, while the majority (5513) was against it and wanted to keep the cursives. What do you think? I personally am a big fan of the old-fashioned stuff :0)
Ano, je tomu tak. Jiz pred par mesici se ceske skolstvi rozhodlo vystrnadit ‘zastarale’ psaci pismo za pismo jednodussi. tzv. Comenia Script, ktere na prvni pohled pripomina tiskaci abecedu. Ucitele jsou v tomto rozhodnuti rozdeleni na dva tabory: jedna strana zastava to, ze slozitejsi pismo (krasopis) lepe rozviji detsky mozek; druha strana ma za to, ze nekterym detem krasopis nejde a srazi jim to tak sebevedomi. Psychiatr Petr Pothe, ktery zastava mineni druhe take doplnuje: ” To by v zemich jako je USA nebo Britanie museli byt vsichni mnohem hloupejsi nez my, jelikoz se tam psaci pismo uz dlouho vubec neuci….Je take velky nesmysl, pokud dite i ve vyssim rocniku dostane dvojku z jinak vyborne napsane povidky jen proto, ze jeho pismo neni dostatecne upravne.”
Jini take tvdi, ze i kdyz pisete hezkym krasopisem, v cizine vam to vase pismo nikdo neprecte, protoze na nej jine narodnosti nejsou zvykle.
Podle ankety v iDNES.cz 2077 volicu schvaluje novy zpusob psani, ale vetsina (5513) volicu je proti. Co si o tom myslite vy? Ja osobne jsem pevnym zastancem krasopisu :o)
Source: http://zpravy.idnes.cz/zacal-boj-o-nove-psaci-pismo-na-zakladnich-skolach-f7e-/studium.asp?c=A100422_074451_studium_nos
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The kids in US are still learning cursive writing, at least in Northern California they do. They do not learn this skill until third grade when their fine motor skills are more developed. Writing in cursive promotes to develop their fine motor skills even further not to mention better eye hand coordination. The cursive writing is not enforced in middle school and high school. But the kids need to know hot to write and READ in cursive. Many teachers choose to use cursive writing on the white board. The kids in US do not get graded so harshly on the writing comparing to the Czech kids. They just have to show the effort and do their very best. Which means it does not affect their self-esteem whatsoever.
I understand that in today’s world reports and essays are typed on computer but I still believe certain “old fashion skills” such as cursive writing should be thought in schools.
By the way, when you sign a check do you print your name or write your name in cursive?
Here in Southern California kids do not learn cursive anymore – at least that is what I hear from my friends who have older kids at schools. I guess it depends on a particular school?
That was one of the other issues raised: How do you write your signature if you don’t know how to write in cursive? To me, that is the cherry on the top of a pie – coming up with your own – of course completely unreadable – signature in cursive!!! :))
When my American twenty-two year old daughter was in primary school, they had already stopped perfecting cursive writing and instead taught just enough that the kids knew how to do it but not enough that anyone could read it! My child’s teacher always said cursive is obsolete. Now if we could just get the American schools to switch to metric. Then all US kids could use the ten days it takes in their education to teach them two different systems of measurement for something else.
As I know, cursive letters writing will be taught again in USA. It is said to be good for development of “motoric”(?) skills.
Karen, great plan – why don’t they fix the metric system first and then we can worry about those cursive writing. Much more important.
The “z” on top is very strange, this is not what we were taught at school. My mom uses cursive to this day and it looks very pretty.
I agree with the metric system, that should be prioritized! Also have you ever noticed, that when you write Czech “1”, that Americans think it’s “7”? They write one as a straight line…
Yes! I still like our one so much better than the American one. Their ‘one’ gets confusing because it looks like ‘l’ or ‘i’ or capital ‘i’….
But now that I am thinking about it I have been writing ‘one’ the American way, just to play it safe. I live here after all so I should assimilate 😉
Yes, I know, I do too but sometimes I forget (I really have to concentrate) and write it in Czech way and they don’t know….but I think it is still a big difference and they should be able to tell. For some reason also when I write “4”, they think it’s “7”… 🙂
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I live in Boston, The U.S., my children go to private schools and they are learning cursive letters.
In my opinion it makes writing personal, special, artistic. The connected letters make it more “legato” which is a musical term for smooth and connected.
Why do let go of tradition, culture, personal expression and beauty?
why is the hand writnig limited?
Hello there. I am 27, and still use cursive, but kids close to a decade younger than me have a hard time reading my writing. It sucks they took cursive out of the schools, honestly though the children of today are getting dumber and more out of control.. the school system here is really not great and underfunded. Keep cursive alive, my friend!
Agreed!