Abolish the Superfluous

Pursuant to the previous post regarding public education, we have a disquieting story out of the Washington Post: Cursive Handwriting is Disappearing From Public Schools.

Says Steve Graham, education professor out of Arizona State University:

“When you think about the world in the 1950s, everything was by hand. Paper and pencil,” Graham said. “Right now, it’s a hybrid world.”

Graham said the argument for keeping cursive around centers more on tradition than practicality.

Fair enough point, but it's easy to see why Graham is a professor of education and not of history. It wasn't just "the world of the 1950s" wherein everything was by hand---it was virtually all of human history up until that point. Dohh.

Anyways, there are inadvertent points to be made here. Keeping something "more on tradition than practicality" is such a perfect encapsulation of modern American public education, I don't even know where to begin.