Penmanship Debate

Neyda Borges is the author of “Why The Debate Over Cursive Is About More Than Penmanship”, an online article published in the StateImpact section of the NPR website. In this article, Borges discusses the debate about removing cursive handwriting from a school’s curriculum and whether or not it seems more than it is. She mentions how the real issue is not about teaching penmanship but that different socio-economic statuses affect many students in different ways and widen the “achievement gap.” She also argues that cursive is not the only thing that has been removed from the curriculum; other things such as learning grammar are no longer a part of it as well. Cursive is just one underlying symbol that leads back to one main issue: the advantages …show more content…
The author mentions that many educators are preparing students to take “high-stakes tests” such as “FCAT” and “AP” and “AICE” exams. By naming some of these, the author is emphasizing these tests and making them appear very important. She also mentions that “computer and typing skills are essential” which implies that handwriting is not as important for preparing for these tests. Her repetition of words such as “more and more” and “leaner and leaner” create an exaggeration making it seem in this case that more is being asked of teachers than they can possibly do. Also, the author shows that teachers nowadays see cursive as “fancy curlicue letters” that are not as important. Instead by using terms such as the aforementioned, the author shows that the educators are almost downgrading the importance of cursive by making it seem less because important exams do not test cursive and in today’s world teachers are getting paid to prepare students for these tests. This all ties back to another important issue: things like cursive and grammar are not focused on in school anymore and are being removed simply because teachers lack the time and money to teach students things that would not be significant on …show more content…
Schools have slowly weaned off of teaching cursive and grammar in schools leaving it up to parents to fill in any learning gaps that are created from this. Families in higher socioeconomic statuses have access to resources outside of school allowing students to improve their learning and fill in any gaps in their education. However, students whose families are lower in socioeconomic status, lack the materials to improve their education creating a larger achievement gap. Thanks to The Common Core State Standards, the achievement gap is widening, making it more difficult for students to catch up once they are