For weeks the students have been learning, and complaining, about cursive writing. Like Latin, it’s a dead language — er, lost art — and I was determined to resurrect it.
The students completed cursive packets, practice sentences and more all leading up to the final project: writing a letter and addressing an envelope, all in cursive.
We added some fun with cute sticker stamps for them to use and even put a little mailbox in the classroom.
But still some were determined to despise the assignment, and they made no effort to mask their frustrations.
The letters were to be written to their teacher who was returning to the classroom the next week and some of them were brutally honest in their musings.
“Cursive writing sucks. I had to spend my weekend doing it.”
Clearly, three months of classroom time was not long enough to master the craft.
Others went with a gentler approach, “The substitute teacher is making us learn cursive and many of my friends aren’t very happy about it to say the least.”
Well, life is like that sometimes, you’ll get used to it.
“Dear Teacher, It’s felt like forever since we’ve seen you. We’ve all learned cursive and my hands are slowly dying.”
Yes, dying like cursive writing lessons in classrooms across the country.
One letter left me with more questions than answers: “Please tell us what dead body you saw.”
Uhm … yes, please do? Inquiring minds want to know!
And one student took the opportunity to tattle on another student (whose name has been redacted even though the writer is not wrong in his accusations):
“I miss you. Classmate has not done a single thing since you left and he’s just been playing games.”
Followed by: P.S. “LOOK AT HIS GRADES!!!!”
Indeed, Classmate needs a stern talking to…or a swift boot in the pants, but I digress.
And he isn’t the only one, “I miss you teaching. Also, our class needs you because some kids need a behavior reminder.”
Apparently, I’ve gone soft as my own kids would say they were (are) “reminded” frequently.
And who doesn’t appreciate some candid honesty?
“I wanted to tell you that this letter is the dumbest thing I’ve done in class this year.”
Regardless of how the students felt about learning cursive, all of their opinions were in fact, written in cursive. So they did actually learn something whether they realize it or not.
“We learned cursive. It’s kind of fun …”
And on that note, I will take the win and retire with a victory!
Motherhood, Part II, is a recurring column in the News-Sun.
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