On 2018-07-11 11:49 AM, Gary wrote:
> Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>>
>> Things must have changed in the generation between you and me. I learned
>> to write cursive with a pencil.
>
> I'm actually stunned that people here claim they don't teach kids
> cursive now. Is that true? I find it hard to believe but I can
> check with my daughter about this. I have 2 grandchildren in
> elementary school.

I just Googled it and it seems that cursive is no longer on the
curriculum here in Ontario, or most of the rest of Canada. It can be
taught at the discretion of teachers, but only about 40% of schools were
teaching it as of three years ago.


> I've also heard that they teach limited math now too since
> everyone has calculators of some sort so no need to learn the
> basics?

I don't know if there is any truth to that. They are still teaching the
basics here. Calculators are certainly helpful in higher levels. I had
to take statistics and probability courses at university in the early
70s when calculators were extremely expensive. A pocket calculator that
would add, subtract, multiply and divide was about $250, and those that
had memory banks were a lot more. Working out even the simplest
formulae involved squaring and figuring out square roots. The mechanics
of all the calculations was overwhelming and interfered with learning.
By my second here the department had set up a calculator room where we
could do the math.