Interview with Regina Varnadore

In her June 26, 2013 interview with Martha Manning, Regina Varnadore details her time at Winthrop from 1986-1989 as an Elementary Education major. In particular, Varnadore describes the process of earning a degree in Elementary Education. Varnadore discusses her experience student teaching and her career as a teacher. Varnadore mentions her opinions on education in Rock Hill and employees in the school district. Provided is information on Varandore’s family, the story of Varnadore earning her Master’s degree, and her future in the teaching profession. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.

Cutting Cursive: Is Handwriting Still Important to Today’s Preservice Teacher?

Handwriting is a tool for communication often untaught that has effects on learning and long-term development for students of the future. Handwriting used to be needed in order to function in society, however, today that skill is no longer needed. New technology, current teaching methods and societal needs have caused handwriting to be overlooked in many school districts. Classrooms are overwhelmed with information and many schools are simply running out of time to teach cursive, therefore no longer making it a priority. Handwriting is a perceptual motor skill requiring higher cognitive thinking, something that most primary school children find difficult, yet it is still needed in the school curriculum and provides a stable foundation for students of the future. The questions to be addressed by my research are to examine the factors that have led to the demise of cursive writing in elementary schools. I will research the complex issues that have contributed to the decline of cursive handwriting. This will include my investigation into the factors that technology has played, along with societal needs. I will interview preservice teachers, those students in college preparing to become teachers, and try to understand where the importance for teaching handwriting started and ended. By the end of my research I want to have constructed a timeline of events to explain the demise of this needed skill. My methodology for this research will be to gather information from various primary and secondary literature review sources. I want to understand when cursive started to disappear from the curriculum and why.