Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind (8 page)

If schools wiped out cursive, what would children look at in the front of the classroom? Every third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade
teacher in the universe puts the cursive alphabet over the whiteboard in the front of the room. It belongs up there. Just
like the clock and the overhead screen and the American flag! And what would kids do without the laminated strips of manuscript
letters that are taped across the top of their desks below their name tags? What would they fiddle with and pick at and scribble
on while the teacher is talking? What would they blow their pink erasures on? Where would they put their stickers?

Just like children have a favorite color and sport and ice cream, kids have their favorite cursive letters, too. Lowercase
is popular because it looks like a roller coaster. Capital
is always well liked because it begins with a candy cane.
is a big hit because it looks like a big belly if you draw a belly button in it. Poor
. I feel sorry for that little guy. No one ever picks
as his favorite. It’s just too dang hard.

One day when the children were practicing their letters, I overheard a couple of my girls talking.

“
is my specialty,” Jennifer declared, admiring how beautiful it looked on her paper. “What’s your favorite?”

“
,” answered Gina.

“Why?” Jennifer asked.

“It’s my first initial.”

“Mine’s lowercase
,” Sarah chimed in.

“How come?” Jennifer said.

“It’s easy,” Sarah replied.

Chloe joined the others. “I like little
and big
.”

“Why?” said Gina.

“They’re loopy. I like loopy letters.”

Jennifer turned to Sarah. “What’s your second place?”

“
,” Sarah answered.

“Me, too,” said Jennifer. “I’m really fast at it.”

Some children become very attached to their own ways of writing those letters. Just this week, I noticed that Rebecca was
forming her
’s incorrectly.

“Rebecca, let me help you with that.” I wrote a
properly on her paper. “There. You see?”