not the write answer

The Wall Street Journal reports that 45 states have now dropped the teaching of cursive writing from their required standards.  Even more troubling, the paper says that;s just what middle school kids want.

When asked whether they should have to learn cursive, 3,000 of 3,900 middle-school students surveyed by Junior Scholastic magazine in 2010 said it should be erased. "NO! OMG, 4get cursive, it's dead!"

Call me old-fashioned ... or worse. I also believe that kids should have to learn how to do multiplication and long division by mind and hand before they are allowed to use calculators.  I'm skeptical of any scientific study that tries to prove or disprove some major cognitive benefit from learning to write or calculate, but I still believe it's useful.