School Age Question

[d2vasquez]

Avery goes to private school. They learned cursive in 1st grade and were given a letter grade for it.

I don't like that he gets a grade for it b/c it is the only subject he gets a B in, so it keeps him off the headmaster's list every 9 weeks. But I am glad that they are teaching it as early as they do. It really makes sense when you think about it. He doesn't write in print ever and now that he's in second grade his handwriting is really improving.

Wow letter grades in 1st grade? My girls go to a private school too and letter grades start in 6th grade. It is very stressful to all of us because of course, you want your child to excel and I often wish for the G, VG and S grades again.

Oh and my girls learned cursive at the end of 3rd grade.

 

[kim21673]

end of second/beginning on third grade here

Our district teaches D'nealian for manuscript so there is an easier transition to cursive.

 

[jessica31876]

they phased it out in schools here. I think it is bad too. I could read cursive in 1st grade but did not write until 3rd officially. I always went ahead of everyone to learn more though. Aggravated my teachers something awful LOL

 

[Sherri Tierney]

Here it is taught in 3rd grade. The teachers discussed it because it isn't officially required but all 4 of the 3rd grade teachers in our district think it is important. Our 4th and 5th grade teachers feel the same way and my daughter has had to continue using it in 4th and so far in 5th. There is a lot more emphasis on cursive this year on her daily seat work.

I find the fact that so many schools are phasing it out to be a disservice to our society. I feel cursive is very important. Sure, we can use computer fonts to write but what happens to the cursive fonts? Do we stop using them because no one can read them? Are our children incapable of reading the scrapbooks of our ancestors where notes were written in cursive? It is just ridiculous to think about.

I think it was much easier for DS to master in first grade rather than waiting til 3-4 when he would have been much more used to printing. Hearing that they are phasing it out of public schools just seems wrong. I still think it's an important skill. But of course they're just teaching the tests in most public schools these days so I guess handwriting gets nixed first since mostly the only writing they need to know on those tests is how to color in a circle.

Unfortunately, teaching the test happens all too often. Our own district has had issues with this. The teachers openly admit to leaving out certain things because they have to teach the test. We are switching to common core instruction and will be reintegrating a lot of things that were previously left out. I'm excited about this change!