Why Curse Cursive? And the Dangers of Not Teaching It!

Back in the day, cursive writing was a third-grade rite of passage.  You sat down with the dotted lined handwriting paper and eagerly practiced each letter and loop in hopes of earning a sticker, maybe even a coveted "puffy" one.  Eventually you added your own flowery flair to be used liberally when writing notes to friends as you passed in the hall or surreptitiously in class (another rite of passage)!  Yet the art of cursive writing - once associated with good character and virtue - has been rudely discarded in favor of keyboarding and bell-to-bell instruction on more “relevant subjects.”  

So, should cursive writing make a comeback and be taught in school?  Absolutely yes!  Although the world is becoming more technology dependent, there are many reasons why we should still teach students cursive writing.  First and foremost, learning cursive writing increases literacy! 

Research shows cursive refines writing aptitude as it gives students a clearer understanding of the alphabet and how letters are formed.  Learning cursive is good for children’s fine motor skills and helps students retain more information and generate more ideas.  Moreover, studies show that kids who learn cursive actually score better on reading and spelling tests, perhaps because the linked-up letters force writers to think of words as wholes instead of parts.

To that end, the College Board found that students writing the essay portion of the SAT scored higher than their printing peers due to more efficient writing speed, allowing students to allocate more cognitive space to content than the physical act of writing.  Makes sense as writing cursive engages both hemispheres of the brain, including areas associated with thinking, language, and memory.  Kids who write in cursive don’t just form words more easily; they also write superior sentences as cursive writers craft stronger phrases and more complex sentences.

 

Perhaps most astoundingly, learning cursive benefits students with disabilities, specifically dyslexia.  A student with dyslexia can have a very difficult time discerning between printed letters, such as b, d, p, and q.  Cursive letters give dyslexic students an opportunity to access text as they reduce letter reversals.  Isn’t this an example educational equity in its purest form?

If that’s not enough evidence to embrace the art of loopy letters, teaching cursive allows kids to sign their names on future documents which prevents forgery and communicate authentically with older generations, such as grandparents.  Did you know many historical documents were handwritten in cursive, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Declaration of Independence, manumissions of enslaved persons, census forms, letters from Civil War soldiers, the original manuscript of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and minutes from the meetings of the National Organization of Women, just to name a few? 

So, let’s keep cursive writing part of the curriculum and maintain its inherent value in an effort to promote literacy for all.  Because not only is writing in cursive a lost art, it’s a practical life skill that can literally change one’s future.