ALBANY — Many Big Apple students, including the children of several state lawmakers, can’t even sign their own names, it was revealed at an educational budget hearing in Albany today.
“Not only is it sad, but it’s a security issue,” said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI/Brooklyn).
She told Board of Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia that students have become so tech-oriented that they never learn how to sign their John Hancock, which renders them unable to properly ink contracts, checks and credit cards.
Malliotakis said the penmanship problem was brought to her attention while helping one of her constituents fill out a voter registration form. He printed his name, and when she told him to actually sign it, he insisted that was his signature.
Even the 11-year-old daughter of veteran Harlem legislator Herman “Denny” Farrell doesn’t know how to sign her name.
“And she’s smarter than me,” Farrell said of his daughter, Prince, who attends a private school in Harlem. “They don’t teach it. I’m going to go home now and teach her handwriting.”
LeRoy Comrie, a senator from Queens, told Malliotakis his son never learned that skill either.
“Can you imagine?” Malliotakis told The Post. “Not only does it mean you can’t sign a business contract, but it makes you vulnerable to identity theft because anyone can just go ahead and print your name.”
Elia said she would look into the issue.
Common Core state standards don’t require students to learn cursive, and the city Department of Education leaves that decision up to each school.