LITTLE CURRENT—Starting this fall, Grade 3 pupils across the province will be learning a skill that has been deemed ‘optional’ for teachers since 2006—cursive writing. It will again be a mandatory piece of the curriculum.
The move has been lauded by education experts across the province—evidence shows that cursive writing helps to promote overall literacy—but not necessarily so by the teachers who must teach it, citing not enough time to ready themselves for the changes to curriculum, which also includes a push toward more phonics.
For 21-year-old Nikki Boyle of Little Current, she says she’s happy kids will begin to learn the art of cursive in school again, a skill she says she’s sadly lacking.
The Registered Early Childhood Educator struggles to sign her name, especially her given name, Nicole, as she has a hard time joining the c, o and l. She recounted a story to this reporter about a recent trip to Service Ontario for a driver’s licence renewal. She was asked to sign her name, which would then appear on the back of her licence. When she scrawled ‘Nikki’ she was told this wouldn’t do as it wasn’t her full name. Ms. Boyle had to explain her predicament to the Service Ontario employee and he relented.
“I can’t even read birthday cards from my grandma!” she laments, noting that she must ask her mother to read aloud the message contained within.
“I’m jealous of the Grade 3s who get to learn,” Ms. Boyle adds, noting she has ‘learn to’ books on cursive writing in her Amazon cart as we spoke. “It looks so much nicer; it looks fast.”
Ms. Boyle also believes that if everyone knew cursive it would ‘even the playing field,’ so to speak. She still hopes to learn, one of these days.
