When the mother called the school, she was told that the daughter's report was on target. In part because of the emphasis on technology and computers, schools no longer pay much attention to cursive writing --or as it used to be termed "penmanship."

School officials see handwriting increasingly as something people do only when they need to make a note to themselves rather than communicate with others. They also claim that students accustomed to using computers to write at home have a hard time seeing the relevance of hours of practicing cursive handwriting.

The argument is not unreasonable. It's part of adapting to the times. But there are hazards in setting up skills so that we are fully dependent on the computer. There are many times and many places where computers will either not be available or not be functioning. Ironically, this applies to a majority of school work, where activities from taking notes to essay tests, are still done by hand. The ability to handwrite in those circumstances can be invaluable. And cursive writing is much faster than printing.

Furthermore, if taught properly, the learning of cursive writing does not take huge amounts of time. It is best done when the children are in the early grades when basic writing patterns are being established.

Basically, despite the technological changes we are experiencing, there is no real need to abandon a skill that is easy to acquire and can prove valuable throughout life. But given the direction in which schools are moving, it will be left to the parents to teach cursive writing--if they would like their children to maintain this very useful aspect of literacy.