Why Can’t Our Kids Read Writin’ These Days?

As of Sunday, October 31, 2010

My granddaughter is in the fifth grade. She can’t read or write.

Well, she can read printed books. She likes those and reads them voraciously. She can invent stories, too — good ones, in my opinion. She can text. She can keyboard. She can print. She can’t write, or read what anybody else wrote — even in “a good hand.”

Recently, it shocked me to the core to find she was unable to read a simple Halloween poem that my now 40-something niece wrote as a grade school project long ago in Mississippi.

My niece Ashley had written a few rhyming lines on an orange cut-out pumpkin, glued the pumpkin on cardboard, then surrounded it with seasonal sketches. My sister found it tucked away somewhere and was taking it with her on her visit to her daughters and grandchildren in California. Southwest has the best deals out of RDU, which is a good deal for me, too. It means we get more frequent visits from my sister and brother-in-law.

I thought our delightful, very bright, very pretty granddaughter would get a kick out of this poem — she likes to make up poems and stories herself — so I showed it to her. She spent a long time studying it, then pointed to the word “trick” (in “trick or treat”) to ask what the last letter was.

She could not read that easy little poem. Despite years of top marks, a love of reading, and being a grade or two removed from that of the author, it was Greek to her. Nobody had taught her to read or write. They taught her to print, to read printed books, but not to develop her own handwriting or to be able to read that of others.

Anybody besides me think our schools should teach kids to read and write?

The state apparently thinks so, because it is item 5.08 on the N.C. Standard Course of Study Competency Goals for third grade in public schools. I asked if she had not been taught handwriting in the third grade.

“They did, for about a week,” she said. “Then they stopped.”

Stopped? They stopped?

There was a pretty loud moment of stunned silence before I turned away, leaving her to enjoy Ashley’s drawings of ghosts, pumpkins and witches. Last week I happened across her former principal (a good principal who is now heading another school) and asked about reading and writing and other things my English teacher mother would have thought important.

Apparently, there is no state test to measure handwriting. And, if it cannot be tested it will not be taught — even if it is on the Standard Course of Study the principal showed me how to find on the Internet. Simple as that. Funny thing was, I’d just been meeting with a crowd of sixth- and seventh-grade students and talking about how the Constitution was — well — written, back in 1787.

As “Ben Franklin,” I’d told them how Thomas Jefferson, since he could not attend in person as he was representing the United States in the court of France, sent four trunks of books to Philadelphia. That was so Madison and Franklin, Washington and Wilson and the others could study the ancient republics to see why they’d failed and avoid the same errors.

Of course, many of Jefferson’s books were in Latin, and many in Greek. Jefferson read and wrote both. The instructions he left for his own tomb are in Greek. In those days they thought an educated man should at least have five years of schooling and be able to read and write in more than one language.

That was then. Is this now? Is this what we want?

Contact John Chappell by e-mail at jfchappell@gmail.com.

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TOOMSTER 2 years, 6 months ago

i truly believe that if schools went back to emphasizing handwriting and teaching 'penmanship', students would take more pride in themselves. And whe you respect youself, you respet others. In other words, let's go back to teachin' the three "r's" and, who knows, we might just regain the fourth "R" from our kids--Respect.

Thanks for the Memories,

Dennis Toomey

Sally244 2 years, 6 months ago

"Apparently, there is no state test to measure handwriting. And, if it cannot be tested it will not be taught."

This is the problem, "if it can't be tested then it isn't taught." I mentor a senior from Pinecrest and in working together we needed to know the circumference of something. I asked her in fun do you remember how to calculate this? Her response was "oh no, we learned that in 9th grade and I don't remember it any more." She obviously just memorized it for the test and then discarded it. This isn't learning, she has no curiosity, no apparent interest in learning but just goes through the motions. Every week I ask her what she has learned and she just giggles and says "oh, I don't know." She knows I'm going to ask her the same question every week and is never able to answer. I finally gave her a talk about her lack of interest and gave her a specific assignment for next week. Whether she shows up or not is going to be the question and if she actually has a question I will be thrilled.

This is the third senior I have mentored and every one of them has been in a hurry to get the stuff they need to finish the project without any curiosity or a willingness to go beyond the basics.

My biggest concern is that we are raising students to just answer the expected questions, are not encouraged to be free thinkers and will be willing to just follow the herd and go in the direction they are told. This is a very scary possibility. I can't imagine what our future culture will be like.

Zoey 2 years, 6 months ago

I find it odd being called penmanship and writing in good hand. I was taught this to be "Cursive" writing. Is this the missing word or am I way off base ?

fatboy 2 years, 6 months ago

Hey Zoey, you probably haven't heard the terms "handwriting", and "good hand" because you are too young. I only remember writing called "writing". I didn't hear about Cursive until about 10 years ago. I'm 59 now, so that may explain things.

Zoey 2 years, 6 months ago

10 years ago ? That'd put me at 12-13 ? Maybe his granddaughter will learn cursive next year.....lol

highschoolmom 2 years, 6 months ago

Unfortunately I see it almost everyday in my field...there are too many seniors and I am talking grade 12 seniors, that do not know how to read or write but they have been pushed through with this "No child left behind."

I really don't understand any of it!

gardengirl 2 years, 6 months ago

I don't have the answer as to whether or not penmanship, cursive, or writing is taught at any time during the formative years of a child's education, but I do have a question? If a parent can plainly see that his/her child has illegible handwriting or some form of penmanship needs to be taught to a child, then why does the parent not do something about that? There are plenty of "workbooks" out there that can assist the parent with this endeavor. It is not the schools' sole responsibility to teach anything & everything to a child; it is the parents' responsibility to spend time with the child demonstrating how to write legibly.

marathonman 2 years, 6 months ago

My granddaughters both read and write well above average through testing. They have been in private school throughout. And they live in KS. Could it be public vs private or St vs St. In any case, we have kids all over the country who can not read and write nor do they know who the President is, nevermind the political comments, or what the constitution is and what it stands for. Oh, many know the most famous rapper or rock star or professional athlete. Most can operate any electronic devise better than we can and fix the computer when it goes whacky. Shouldn't we be using electronics more to teach them the basics of readin', writin' and arithmetic, plus throw in some civics, geography, POD, history, art and music - other than popular all taught to the tune a a hickory stick!?!?!?!?!?