Monday, June 2, 2014

RIP, cursive writing.

...So, the much adored fancy style of writing heading to a universal ban? 

Well yes, at least that's what the digital age and changing times suggest. Curvise writing, as the trend indicates is way past its expiry date. This is not just because we've learnt to save time (time lost in forming curves and loops in curvise writing) and use SMS language more often, but as modern pedagogy suggests there is no inherent logic in pretty writing style!

Infact, most schools in India are slowly digesting the fact and hence are putting less emphasis on writing curvise letters.  That flamboyant flow of writing style is no longer a measure of child's achievement, rather a questioning mind is. (http://m.timesofindia.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/Schools-are-writing-off-cursive/articleshow/23601901.cms). 

And all this happening much to parents's chagrin. The stinging dismissal of curvise writing have certainly caused many parents left wondering. As a child, growing up under the tender attention of my parents, I remember mastery in curvise writing held a very special meaning for me, after all it earned me a good number of handwriting awards in school. For a student with a neat hand, it used to give an edge over other classmates who were happily busy scribbling pretty worms in their notebooks. But inspite all this, i can never thank enough my parents who used to think that the curvise wrting is not the only catalyst for growth and development. They encouraged me to be curious enough and were always ready to bear my inquisitive mind.

It's a irony of our educational system that it remains a religion that few would choose had they not been forced into by parental pressure. Though it's a debatable topic and an endless discussion, but why do we force our child to have the world's most beautiful handwriting when the child can have an option to have the world's most observant mind!

I may be new to the world of teaching, but what I am sure of is that I am not going to plague my student's learning experience with the lack of excitement and enthusiasm for anything educational.

As an individual, let's decide to make our children have the emotional demand for education, let them be free and carve their own world rather than forcing them to learn the art of carving neatly!

I have an year old daughter, and I am going to let her free to explore the world around and not succumb to the pressure of rote education.