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Emit De La Rosa's avatar

I’m old enough to remember when cursive writing was part of the elementary school curriculum. Now my kids are in elementary school, it’s not even in the curriculum. But they can type way faster then I did as a kid, of course they’re leaning on iPads and laptops. We live in strange days.

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BossypantsAU's avatar

My two cents...

I never understood why schools dumped handwriting and cursive instruction, but didn't replace it with keyboarding (or typing, as we called it). My high school freshmen can't do either one satisfactorily. Just because kids can text at warp speed doesn't mean that translates to a keyboard.

Sustained reading is a discipline and takes years to develop. My fear is that if people don't develop that discipline, their understanding will become a mile wide and an inch deep. I HATE listening to things. I don't do audiobooks, and please don't ask me to listen to a podcast or watch a help video. Just give me the transcript and let me be. I can read a lot faster than I can listen, and I retain very little of what I hear, but lots of what I read. If people don't choose to read difficult texts, what will they miss out on? Will we become a society of the recent, with no understanding or appreciation of the past? Will we trade the wisdom of the ages for whatever pablum is churned out these days?

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