“Spelling and handwriting are among the least glamorous topics in today’s language arts. By contrast, in the 19th and a portion of the 20th century, schooling in literacy involved heavy emphasis on penmanship and spelling along with a great deal of drill and practice (179).”
I related to a great deal of what was being said in this chapter. When I was in elementary school there was time built into the day where we would practice cursive. While this started later in school, the time dedicated to cursive increased as I went up in grade. We were constantly told how important it was to learn cursive because we would need it in middle school. The only times that I ended up using cursive was on the SAT’s and my teacher certification tests. My middle school teachers, high school teachers, and college teachers required that papers were either in print or typed so that they could read them.
While I was in forth grade, handwriting was of great importance to my teachers. Because of this, I was constantly told to go back to my seat and rewrite my work so that it was neater. Needless to say, I hated forth grade although my handwriting did improve. The emphasis that teacher’s had on handwriting made sense to me because computers were not as widely used as they are today.
In one of my student teaching placements, the teacher spent time teaching her second graders cursive. I chalked this up to her being an older teacher. I on the other hand, thought it was a waste of time. I used it very little after learning it and now that computers are so prevalent in our everyday lives, I figured that cursive was a lost art. Along with this, when it I something that is subjective in relation to importance why would we, as teachers, take time away from any of the other subjects what we rarely have enough time for as it is?
I found it very interesting that research showed that the emphasis on spelling in United States schools was not producing effective speakers. This study was done in the 1970s but proved that something needed to be done. Students were then looked at to see how they learned and what was causing the problems with spellings. Since then, the accuracy of spelling may have improved among Americans but I wonder if the accuracy is and has been starting to decrease. We talk about how beneficial technology is within our everyday lives as well as education but is it effecting if children learn how to spell? I know that I am an awful speller but I am not concerned about it. I know that I do not have to worry because if I type it into word, it will tell me if I am right or wrong. I will also be given the correct spelling (I can do the same thing on my phone as well). The only thing that I need to know is the form of the work I want to use (their, there, or they’re). Are students going to need to know how to spell in their everyday lives if computers, or even phones, are so acceptable and willing to edit spelling for them? Students want to know the reasons for why they need to learn certain things and many students will learn that they have a variety of resources to use that can help them with their spelling as long as they have an idea of how to spell the word and how to use it.
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