New SAT

I read about the SAT writing component today. I was struck by how contrary it is to we know will yield "good" writing. The exam is to be written in pencil in 25 minutes. Hah! High school students no longer learn penmanship that gives them the flowing hand to allow a substantial sample in 25 minutes. They are taught to draw letters instead of sweep through them the way we learned with Palmer penmanship. And they are writing with a pencil--with an eraser--which just encourages students to lock up as they write. It's sad and ugly and stressful and not very smart frankly.

I can see that our students have been badly affected by the prep to write for the state essays. They can write at great length about nothing with utter correctness and mindlessness. Now, we'll have them spending time learning cursive writing all over again when they should be focusing on critical thinking.

On a side note, the whole penmanship "thing" reminded me of a not-so-smart elementary teacher I overhead in the supermarket a couple years ago. She was telling a friend that she no longer teaches cursive writing because students "will never use it." I thought, "So, how will they do historical research if they can't read the letters," but I kept my mouth shut. Now, her students would be at a real disadvantage--although the ones who ended up with her probably wouldn't be able to make it through the SAT's anyway.