Some things are like riding a bike... you never really forget how to do them. As it turns out, a strange kind of amnesia has taken over students in China: they have forgotten how to write Chinese characters. After practicing careful calligraphy for years in lower grades, out of over 2,000 students polled by China Youth Daily, 83 percent struggle to remember how to write characters as reported recently in the Agence France Presse.
Similarly, cursive handwriting in the United States is going out of style. Even though cursive handwriting remains in the California State Standards for elementary school and probably many other state standards too, it is not included in the National Common Core Standards (see related previous YMI post) that some school districts have adopted, according to an Oakland Unified curriculum specialist. Is that because we don’t think it’s important anymore?
USA Today gives a couple possible reasons. “Some fear classic penmanship has been left behind as preparation for state assessment tests dominates class time. Others blame the rise of the Internet, combined with a push to ensure that children are technologically literate.”
Technology plays a big role in the Chinese phenomenon as well. According to an AFP article, “Character amnesia happens because most Chinese people use electronic input systems based on pinyin, which translates Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet. The user enters each word using pinyin, and the device offers a menu of characters that match. So users must recognize the character, but they don't need to be able to write it.”
Is there ever a time when you need to be able to use cursive? The most practical concern might be knowing how to sign your name in cursive. USA Today says, “Lisa Smoak, a parent volunteer at Longleaf Elementary in Melbourne, Fla., recently took a thank you card to school for her son's fifth-grade class to sign. Of 22 pupils, only three signed in cursive.” Maybe we’ll all have electronic signatures soon, but until then, the debate goes on about whether to keep the traditional art of writing as a priority.
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