Normally I would be an advocate of abolishing all things I feel are no longer useful or necessary in modern society, and cursive writing would be one of those skills. However, I recently had the discussion with a colleague who offered a different perspective. Apparently there is research to support the teaching of cursive in order to promote certain aspects of brain development. I don’t honestly know much on the topic, but it has something to do with manipulating an object without interruption and how this helps us develop certain specific neural synapses (i.e. connections between neurons in the brain). I guess I’m saying that I assumed cursive was on its way to being obsolete until I was offered new information. Something interesting to explore!

This is an interesting topic as cursive is how I feel most comfortable writing by hand but I now do most of my writing on a computer. I think a balance is needed since not everything is going to end up fully digital and knowing how to make the act of writing beautiful is part of enjoying it. In all my years of school, elementary to grad school, I’ve handwritten notes as well as stories in my notebooks. They helped me be creative throughout the school day and my life. I still carry a small notebook with me as well as my smartphone and laptop and handwrite letters.

I learned cursive in 3rd/4th grade and was pressured to use it all through school until I transitioned into college – now in my 6th or so year of college education I’ve never had a professor that allowed students to write in cursive – they’ve all required that any handwritten assignments (of which there are very few) must be in print because most people (myself included) have nearly illegible cursive. Now that I have a child who is getting close to that age I can only hope that he isn’t forced to go through years of learning to write in a way that by the time he’s in high school/college will be obsolete.

With the current lean towards schools issuing tablets and the mass accessibility of increasingly portable computers I see no reason to waste valuable educational time on something that has little real value in the long run.

I learned cursive in elementary school and never saw the pine until late in college, when I started writing that way of my own accord and found it much faster. Nowadays I use both print and cursive, depending on the circumstance (mostly the relative priorities of speed versus legibility.) And I do use handwriting a lot in small doses such as notes to myself, even though I use a computer for anything long and a lot of online work and play. I would say yes, teach it – but keep it low-key, and let the students decide whether it’s a skill they want to retain.

Be sure to check out our follow up Q/A with Francie Alexander on this topic!