random poll

[rm]

Super busy. Am suddenly curious about this. Apparently most kids entering college in the US this year don't know how to write in cursive. I suspect this is less a sign of the apocalypse than it feels like to me.

So, tell me things (as usual, poll is un-scientific and reflects my biases and experiences (and 49-year-olds can choose which age category they like better!) -- if the boxes don't work, my apologies and comments super welcome.):

[Poll #1607173]

Comments

[rarelytame.livejournal.com]

I clicked suburban, for area, but I think those should have been ticky-boxes because a lot of people (including me) move around. I learned cursive in a small, rural elementary school in Illinois. The rest I learned in a suburban school in Georgia.

If you're keeping track of such things, the Illinois school, even though it was rural, was a much better school than the one in Georgia, with better teachers, better funding, and so on. I honestly couldn't tell you if the Georgia schools taught cursive or not. The Illinois school offered a LOT more than the Georgia schools. Orchestra and Chorus were offered to kids as an elective starting in the 3rd grade in Illinois. Every grade included a brief introduction to a foreign language (in 2nd grade we learned a bit of German. In 3rd a bit of French. Like that. Not enough to speak it, but I think it helped me later when I took Latin.)

In Georgia, "Band" wasn't offered until either Middle School (7th grade) or High School (9th), and included no stringed instruments. Only instruments you'd find on a football field during half-time. Chorus was offered in 7th or 8th grade. Foreign Languages weren't offered until high school, and only French and Spanish were available to incoming freshman. If you wanted to take Latin, you had to wait until you were a sophomore or junior.

So... I think it's possible the problems with education may be regional, not age-related.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Both regional and class-based. I went to school in a respectably sized town (probably 50,000 residents) that was the largest population center for two hours in every direction. I checked suburban because it wasn't rural, but it was technically classified on sociological maps as "smalltown USA."

My experience was almost identical to yours. I think of it as the meat-and-potatoes version of public education options. Edited to clarify: identical to your description of the Georgia offerings (and we didn't have a Latin option, just Spanish/French/German).