Report cards

[sweetnsilly26]

I feel so bad cortni comes out upset that she made 2 C's when she tried really hard to get honor roll, and I was telling her it;s ok that i was really proud of her because she didn't bring me home any D's or U's, like last year. Well caden comes out he's made Honor roll, and Cortni starts crying and saying he doesn't deserve honor roll like she did because she tried really hard and caden't didn't. and he's proud and I'm proud of him. But we don't want to make cortni feel bad. So we keep it in. I told her 4th grade is hard and she has to do everything in cursive, thats the biggest problem. She got a N in her handwriting. and doesn't finish test because she can't remember the cursive way to write it and she looks on the board and every letter she writes she has to go through her abc's so it takes alot of time to just write one word. So all in all she is having a hard time because she knows the stuff but just don't know the cursive letters. I can't get her help because if shes not failing than they won't help her. I am heart broken for my daughter because she is a honor roll student but can't show it off with her cursive. She is doing better with this teacher. And I am proud of her because she is doing better than last year.

[misty]

That is just NOT RIGHT!! I can see some things needing done in cursive, but when it prohibits the child from showing her knowledge, then she should be able to print. Shannon had the most awful time with cursive & I finally told the teachers that she needed to be able to print except in the class where they were actually learning cursive! I mean geez.....we're in the age of computers now & while I think its great to know cursive, I do not believe its as necessary to be fluent in it as it is to have math skills, reading skills, etc.

[sweetnsilly26]

everything has to be in cursive, spelling test and all. If the teacher cannot read it then she marks it wrong, she studied so hard and then she takes the test and doesn't do good. I just told her practice, practice, practice. I don't know what else to do.

[charliegirl]

My son had a teacher who marked everything according to his cursive skills. I talked to her and she finally agreed to let him take his tests by printing but he still had to do homework in cursive. It was a compromise she agreed to when I pointed out that he couldn't show what he knew because the cursive interfered.

I had problems with her in a lot of areas but she was great about helping me find solutions for him so he could learn writing skills and not be held back by cursive, yet still learn the cursive. If she is amenable to working with you, I have shared some of the things we did in the dysgraphia board. You can look them up and try some of them.

[bugsmom]

Sweets, I've been down the exact same road as you. Josh had the hardest time with cursive writing. It was also required for him to do all assignments in cursive, starting in 4th grade. Well, after many tears and assignments marked down because of his awful cursive, I went to the teacher and stressed that Josh wasn't able to perform up to his potential because, just like Cortni, he had to stop and go just to remember how a letter was formed. Anyway, we came to an agreement that he only had to do cursive for spelling and of course, handwriting assignments. It took a lot of stress off him and he was able to learn cursive at his own pace. I have to say this is the first year (6th) that he can finally write in cursive without stopping to think how the letters are formed. Its been a long road on this one...but I know that Cortni will get it eventually.

I think that you should approach the teacher and let her know what a struggle it is for her. Maybe you can come to an agreement like I did. Also, if you have an IEP coming up, you could include this matter in that.

Hang in there, and give Cortni a big hug, she deserves it for working so hard.

[mary2]

Well, here I have to say that my son was taught cursive since the beginning. Here in my country it is mandatory almost everywhere. The problem came when he started transferring words from print (like in books) to cursive; he couldn't figure out the letters. So I would say that every way has its drawbacks. I am happy that my son uses cursive for writing, but it was really hard work for him to copy information from books.

Sweetnsilly, I really feel for your dd. At the end of the day knowledge is what counts and the way of writing has nothing to do with it. I hope you can find a way out of this so she is really measured for what she knows and not for her style of handwriting.

[jj]

I do hope you can get the teacher to let up on the cursive. It just isn't right when a kid knows the answers but gets it wrong because she messed up on her writing.