Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Do you believe that..

Ok, so I was talking to a friend of mine who teaches 6th grade today. We started with what she's did today and I found out that she went to a seminar about new computer things such as Twitter, igoogle, and Wiki.

Now I have no idea what these things are except a vague concept of twitter. But something she said really got to me. She's learning all these new computer things and her pupils can't type. I don't mean like can't find the letters, I mean like can't type. According to her, the district she works in doesn't teach typing until 11th grade and then its an elective. Now I know I'm getting older, but we learned to type is 6th and 7th grade, IT WAS MANDATORY!

The conversation moved on to the fact that they no longer teach cursive in school either. Now I hated cursive with a passion, but I learned it and now can read it and I have a signature. According to her school they don't teach cursive because with technology they are all going to be typing.

Hello Einstein, if your not teaching cursive and typing doesn't start until maybe 11th grade then how are these kids supposed to write papers? I mean really kids today type lots of stuff and all state tests have to be hand written. Aren't we putting our kids at an immediate disadvantage if we don't teach them these things?

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