Okay, so soon no one will be able to
read the Constitution – or for that matter, sign their name – since cursive is
no longer being taught.
And I wonder if in a few years anyone will be able to compose a simple paragraph without help, now with all those bots eager to pitch in.
Maybe it doesn’t matter that the
ability to read a sewing pattern and create something to wear is dying.
Or that more and more people have
palace-like kitchens, all quartz and stainless steel, with counters long enough
to set up pins and bowl a frame on, and yet Door Dash is their basic source of
sustenance.
And to be fair, I have no idea how to
hitch up oxen to a yoke or churn butter.
But I can’t seem to shake the
realization that so many kids today can’t read a standard clock with a face and
hands.
Sitting cross-legged in yoga class,
exercising my neck joints, I thought, “In a few years, how would an instructor
describe the path for turning a head without using the phrase,
‘counter-clockwise’?”
Could this be a problem for square
dancers?
Will people be able to tell someone
which way to spin a screw? a jar lid? a wrench?
And imagine - when that generation finally ages, physicians in geriatrics
will have to come up with some other common thing for their patients to draw
other than a clock face.
Serious questions for our times! But for screws and such, there's always "lefty loosey, righty tighty." Phew! One disaster averted!
ReplyDeleteFuture contractors will thank you!
DeleteKids used to come up to my desk at school and ask the time, and I'd point to the clock on the wall, and it was only after years of doing this that I realized they couldn't read those clocks!
ReplyDeleteWe're all doomed, Steve!
DeleteYou pose the same thoughts that I have! When I taught elementary school, handwriting was a class that was graded. I taught them how to make the cursive letters, etc. We would spend about 15 minutes a day on it and they had workbooks. I remember that I hated grading the handwriting because sometimes parents would get upset if their child got a "C". When I started teaching in middle school and I would write in cursive on the board, they couldn't read it!! I have neat handwriting and I will never forget a boy raising his hand and telling me that he couldn't read what I was writing. So from then on, I wrote in cursive on the board. The irony is that one would think that the elementary schools would have started teaching keyboarding in lieu of handwriting. But they didn't. And when all of my students had a personal chromebook, they would type with the hunt and peck method.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that you then wrote exclusively on the board in cursive.
DeleteI'm ever grateful that I took typing class in high school - the hunt and peck method would drive me crazy. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is entering information at snail speed.
We learned cursive in third grade, using pencils and when the teacher was satisfied that we could do it properly and legibly, we graduated to pen and ink, the nib kind that you dipped into an inkwell. Now I am a hunt and peck typist, but I do hunt and peck quite a bit faster these days. Maybe in another 20 years I'll be touch typing...
ReplyDeleteYou have some interesting speculation here. I don't do cursive writing anymore.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of learning to tell time. I think there will be purists who will keep the "skill" alive. For a little while, anyway.
ReplyDeleteI recall someone asking the time, and my Boss (same age as me) said it was "a quarter 'til", only to get a blank stare like he'd said something in a foreign language.
I can not believe that cursive has been abandoned. Learning to write is good for fine motor skills and training in the brain. Plus, it's faster to write in cursive, than print. I guess the expectation is once they're in college, they'll take notes on a laptop. Aarrrgh.
ReplyDelete