I learned to write cursive in grade three, as one of the steps along the path to a halfway decent education, back in the 70s when you could get a half decent education from the public school system. Now, cursive is all but gone.
Wifey works in an occupation where you need to sign things, and she sees “kids” in their late teens and early 20s who have no signature. Because they never learned cursive.
Our mantra for raising the children is:
Raise three functional adults to release into the wild,
Being able to sign documents is a requirement for functionality. The little boogers need a signature, meaning they need to learn cursive as one of their summer tasks.
I’m not content with doing a single thing for a single purpose.
Ray Edwards says, “Writing is the doing part of thinking.” I’m not just making them learn cursive. I’m making them use cursive. Every day they:
- read French,
- write French,
- transcribe an English poem
- read their writings to their brothers
- read their brothers’ writing to each other
I can’t remember which titan of direct response advertising first recommended transcribing sales letters by hand (I learned the concept from Ben Settle), but he did so based on the idea of “neurological imprinting.” The idea that, by writing out great sales letters, you get better at writing sales copy.
My own experience in university jibes with this. I never studied, I just transcribed my scribbled class notes neatly into binders, which was enough for me to learn the material.
This summer, my boys are learning French, and studying the greatest writers in the English lexicon, all under the guise of “learning cursive,” every day.
Then, each week, I increase the amounts.
Small disciplines, steady improvement, developing the habits of success, while imprinting the thoughts of the greatest writers in history on their plastic young brains.
Sneaky old daddy is bolstering their educations, while teaching them both the habits of success, and how to develop the habits of success, all under the guise of prepping them for learning cursive in school next year.
Which the misbegotten school system has finally brought back.
