Cursive has been taught in elementary schools across the country for many years. Recently, in the past ten years teaching this skill has declined to where most schools only teach printing. Why have so many schools stopped teaching cursive? How does this affect students positively and negatively? What are the benefits of being taught cursive instead of print?
There are a few main reasons cursive has been taken out of most state curriculums. This all boils down to a sense of priority. Learning and practicing cursive takes up a lot of time in the school day.
“My teacher gave us this packet. We had like five pages that we just practiced over and over again,” sophomore Logan Johnson said.
Teachers complained that this wasn’t a good use of the children’s time especially when they could be learning about other ways of communicating such as technology.
Contrary to popular belief there are many benefits for writing in cursive and learning to write and read cursive In our modern world. Writing in cursive improves students fine motor skills, their memory, and helps them write faster and more efficiently.
“If you’re able to write in cursive, you have better control over your lines and more fluidity for how you do it,” Johnson said.
Opinions on this topic differ from person to person and their individual values within education.
“I don’t think we need it because most of the writing you’re going to do in your adult life is going to be texting and typing. Knowing how to write a letter or handwrite something is important to a degree, but as long as you can handwrite, I don’t think it matters whether it’s in block or cursive,” English teacher Kati Tilley said.
While some believe that it is no longer a priority in early education, some people believe it should still be taught in some way, whether it’s mandatory or an elective.
“I think it’s something we should all learn whether or not cursive could be beneficial. I don’t know if it should be necessarily forced to be taught in an academic environment. But having the option would be great,” Jhonson said.
