Should Cursive Be Taught In Schools?

[Anonymous]

Every once in a while, I'll see someone share nonsense on Facebook about "share/like if you think cursive should still be taught in schools!"

And the comments are almost universally from Methuselah's posse, "of course! kids have gotten so lazy using computers!"

So give me a valid reason for the existence of cursive for kids entering the workforce 15 years from now. Is it just to sign your name?

[Anonymous]

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it should. Brain to hand connections are important in our development as thinkers.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and helps left-right brain connections and concentration. The brain does not work the same way when writing with pen and paper versus keyboard. An imperfect analogy, perhaps, but in my layman's mind handwriting is to listening as keyboarding is to hearing.

[Anonymous]

What's better about learning cursive vs. learning how to print letters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's better about learning cursive vs. learning how to print letters?

It teaches you to read cursive.

[Anonymous]

I have never used cursive except to sign my name. Such a waste. Everything is electronic. Time to get with the times

[Anonymous]

As a person in the IT field, I think it should still be taught for reasons mentioned above. It's only a couple of days lesson worth. Plus, my kids seem to like doing it. They think it's fun. It's the novelty. DS now in 5th, wrote a few papers in cursive. His cursive is a lot more legible than his print, which looks like chicken scratch, and sometimes he can't even read it.

[Anonymous]

YES. Ive always believed my children should be able to read the constitution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, and helps left-right brain connections and concentration. The brain does not work the same way when writing with pen and paper versus keyboard. An imperfect analogy, perhaps, but in my layman's mind handwriting is to listening as keyboarding is to hearing.

Handwriting does not necessarily mean cursive, though. The studies I've seen compare writing to keyboarding, but don't compare cursive to printing to keyboarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YES. Ive always believed my children should be able to read the constitution.

There are lots of printed copies of the constitution around. By the way, do you make them learn to write with that weird "S" that looks like an "F" thing they had going on back then? Do you make them learn to spell words the way they did back then?

[Anonymous]

Yes... I write in cursive 99% of the time. It's much faster than printing and more elegant. It wasn't hard to learn and reinforces hand/eye coordination.

I'm a millennial. My younger sister never learned. She can't read cards that my grandparents write to her. It actually comes up often that she can't read cursive. Her boss would write notes and she couldn't read his notes. Sister's handwriting actually looks like a 3rd graders. I think most of it is because since they didn't spend time on cursive, they also didn't spend any time on printing/handwriting either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's better about learning cursive vs. learning how to print letters?

It teaches you to read cursive.

It is possible to read cursive without having learned to write cursive. As it happens, my kids both learned cursive in school, but they could read cursive before they were taught cursive.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Lewrning cursive helps with brain development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Lewrning cursive helps with brain development.

citation?