Was learning cursive really necessary?

I have a really hard time taking credit for ideas that aren't mine so I'll again preface this by saying I got the idea for this entry from that chain email I received last week. I've gotta be honest with you - I'm not sending it to any of you because it has way too much awesome material I can use in my blog. So you'll just have to settle for getting it in dribs and drabs. Only the title is in the email; the rest of the material is pure me.

So - was learning cursive really necessary? I just don't know the answer to this one. My handwriting over the last 39 years has kinda gone full circle so maybe cursive did serve a purpose. I recently found my diary from high school and I was shocked at how childish my handwriting (all cursive, mind you) was. Lots of loop-de-loops, heavy handed and a few embellishments here and there. Nothing like my half print - half cursive scrawl of today.

I think the philosophical question regarding cursive really speaks to a larger issue of what is really important in schools these days. It is true that I benefited from many subjects I swore were a waste of my time. Remember wondering why in the hell you would ever need to know what a rhombus is? I'll tell you why....Your kindergartner will one day come home and show you what a rhombus is and you better know what he's talking about or you will appear to be an ass. A dumbass, at that.

Reading - a must. Although, books on tape and 24 hour a day news are cutting into that market. Writing - important also but your kid may qualify for an IEP that states that he needs to use a computer instead of a pencil or have a scribe for test taking. Math - we've got calculators now. And kids are allowed to use them after they learn the basics. Plus - there's this thing called the "new math" and none of us know how to do it anyway so helping them with that homework is kind of a waste of time.

I still haven't figured out how they are working Social Studies into the curriculum these days and I honestly believe this is the biggest crime of all. When I was in kindergarten, it was the year of the bicentennial. Of course, this was all very exciting, especially since my elementary school sat on an actual Revolutionary War battlefield. I can still remember sitting in class telling my teacher that my mother had graduated from high school with Martha Washington (true story). Now, for some reason, Mrs. Christensen did not believe me but I insisted she call my mother and ask her herself. Which she did. And that is how I learned the very important history lesson that my mother is not nearly as old as I thought she was.

Back to the subject at hand. I don't have an answer. Did I benefit from learning cursive? Maybe. Probably not as much as my older sisters who went to Catholic school, where they all learned the exact same way to write cursive, which came in very handy when forging notes after skipping school.

Will Max benefit from learning cursive? Who knows? I'm just hoping he learns how to write on the actual line, not an inch above it.