Posts by GrreatTeacher

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Sorry. Tried to paste an example, but it disappeared!

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

LUHE, in the US, the joined up letters are slightly slanted and this is considered cursive. The only other option are the block type manuscript letters that are individual and neither joined nor slanted. It's kindergarten printing or bust!

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Girl next door, I hear you on the Arts. Fortunately my school has visual arts, general music, chorus, media/ library and physical education. STEM has taken the place of technology where they used to learn keyboarding. So they really aren't getting much instruction on any kind of letter formation, digital or handwritten.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

Oppostate, that is a good point regarding choosing the right font. I had never considered it because academic writing is typically specified as Times New Roman or Arial. But, choosing a specific font could be seen as personal expression. Interesting.

39

Concealed carry Dubs

by scruffmcbuff in

i spent a considerable length of time living and working in america (would love to imigrate one day).. almost everyone i worked with and made friends with carried a concealed firearm of somesort.

i found this pretty interesting and as an avid firearm fan even more so.. so to our american members here... .

as a jw did you or did you know any practising dubs who carried or if not had firearms for home defence?

GrreatTeacher

To be clear, Bat Signals are acceptable to Christians in the US.

Your mileage may vary.

39

Concealed carry Dubs

by scruffmcbuff in

i spent a considerable length of time living and working in america (would love to imigrate one day).. almost everyone i worked with and made friends with carried a concealed firearm of somesort.

i found this pretty interesting and as an avid firearm fan even more so.. so to our american members here... .

as a jw did you or did you know any practising dubs who carried or if not had firearms for home defence?

GrreatTeacher

I remember a big kerfuffle over this back in the '80s. There was something printed that was pretty absolute. 'Guns are not for Christians' or similar.

The issue was with hunters who used shotguns or rifles for hunting. They were threatened or lost privileges for this. I think they were eventually accepted for hunting purposes only. It was viewed as providing for your family.

But, handguns were a definite no no. Cops or others who carried weapons for work had to find new employment.

I don't know how or if the issue evolved from there.

37

Should kids learn cursive handwriting?

by GrreatTeacher in

i am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade.

in times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

as you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum.

GrreatTeacher

I am an elementary school teacher of the fourth grade. In times past, students would start learning cursive handwriting in third grade and by fourth should be transitioning to writing in cursive at all times.

As you might be aware, this has all but been taken out of the curriculum. It is still approved for teaching, but there is zero time devoted to it in our daily curriculum. This means I can snatch a moment here and there to teach a few cursive letters, but there is no systematic training anymore.

The practical result of that is that not only can students not write in cursive, but they can't read it either! So, I now use manuscript writing on the board.

I can't afford to have a professional opinion on this because the curriculum is the curriculum. I don't get to choose it, I just teach it. I understand in some ways the argument that as everything goes digital, cursive handwriting won't be a necessity anymore.

But, the loss of knowledge bothers me. I have a bulletin board in my class with copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and not one student can read them!

Not only that, but handwriting is such a personalized thing. Nobody else's handwriting is just like yours. That's the reason that signatures are so powerful and can provide proof on important documents.

What do you think? Is it worth fighting against the tide? Should I be more forward looking and try to eek out more time for keyboarding practice instead? I would love to hear your opinions!

PS On a related note, so many 9 year olds cannot read an analog clock, either! They will literally ask me what time it is and I just point to the clock. Then they sneak up to my computer to read the digital time in the corner of my screen! And telling time on an analog clock is still in the curriculum!

77

It's a shame isn't it?

by freddo in

jw
friends

... that this forum, which is such an amazing resource for those needing support for their journey from watchtower's clutches has an increasingly present representation of unreasoning politically charged loudmouths..

GrreatTeacher

I think the basic assumption that these kinds of political threads violate is that one's own political views are more ubiquitous than they really are.

The same thing happened after Obama was elected in 2008. The people spoke, right? Then what the hell was this Tea Party thing and where the hell did it come from? I'd never heard anything like it. Most people surely agreed with me, right? After all, Obama was voted in!

Now it's happening in reverse with the election of Trump. The people spoke, right? Then what the hell is this Black Lives Matter thing or Me, Too movement? They've never heard of anything like it from anyone they know, right? Most people surely agree with them because after all, Trump got elected, right?

This can be so very disturbing because ideas and principles that one holds dear are suddenly revealed to be held in contempt by a LARGE group of others. And that feels very threatening. So much so that predictions of civil war seem reasonable.

But, my question is, "Would you rather not have known that people feel this way?"

It's information, which in itself is neither good nor bad. Now we know what other people think (because they've been allowed to tell us) and how many others believe that way.

What's really troubling the most, in my opinion, is the knowledge that only about half the US population agrees with you and the other half not only disagrees, but vehemently so. I think both sides of the political spectrum suffer from this dilemma. It's the shattering of the myth that you are in the majority.

Furthermore, when people post, you learn things about them. They tell you who they are. Why would you not want that information?

So, bring it on. If nothing else I've learned a lot about people, and not just their political views.

19

Religion in the USA and Elsewhere

by Joe Grundy in

trying to follow media reports in the us and elsewhere, a question occurred to me.. in the uk, religious beliefs are largely irrelevant to most people.

even those who claim adherence seem to do so in a fairly vague way and it doesn't seem to make much difference.. in the us (it seems to me) it's a much bigger issue.

the evangelical christian movement seems quite powerful politically in various iterations ("family values" etc.

GrreatTeacher

Some folks do not believe that 'freedom of religion' extends to freedom "from" religion in the US.

However, there is the concept of separation of church and state so, for example, at public/state schools we cannot really talk about religion, especially personal faith. The exception might be a religious studies class in high school. In fact, some elementary schools have banned the religious parts of holidays to the point where Santa decorations are okay, but nativity decorations are not. I can talk about Santa, reindeer, Elf on the Shelf and their ilk, but no baby Jesus. We can have Hanukkah lights and dreidel, but no stories of the Maccabees.

So, it's complicated. And weird.

27

Just a thought

by moley in

just a hypothetical question.

if the society was right and armageddon came a knocking would you want to live in a society run by the org and bully elders.. would rather die at armageddon.

i would.

GrreatTeacher

It's a question I asked myself right before I left. I had absolutely no faith that the miserable life of a pre-Armageddon witness would suddenly turn into rainbows and unicorns. The folks in New York were never going to give up their free labor. Life would be just as tedious after the big A. Except now it would be forever.

No thank you!