A few months ago I read the 2016 YA novel, How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather. From the first few chapters, I knew this was a story my students would love, and I became excited to do a book talk for my classes.
Then I encountered what I knew would be a roadblock for many students. No, it wasn’t difficult vocabulary or mature content. The story used fictional letters from the 1600s that were printed in cursive type to appear authentic. The problem? The majority of my seventh and eighth grade students cannot read cursive writing.
More districts and states have removed the teaching of cursive handwriting from their curriculums since it’s not part of the Common Core standards or evaluated on state assessments. As a result, today’s younger students are missing a skill that researchers are starting to realize has more benefits than previously imagined. It’s also creating a generational gap in written communication.
Academic benefits of cursive writing
In the last few years, research has found that learning cursive improves students’ brain development by stimulating synapses and synchronicity between the left and right sides of the brain. A 2015 study in The Journal of Writing Research even discovered that cursive writing helped students with composing skills as well as spelling (from connecting letters to form words). Similarly, The College Board noticed that students who wrote in cursive on their SAT essays scored a little higher than those who printed their papers, perhaps due to the fact that cursive is a faster and more efficient form of writing, so students had more time to compose.
What happens when students can’t read cursive?
Aside from missing part of a great YA novel, students who can’t read or write cursive might have communication problems with others throughout their lives. While most communication is done with technology today, there are still times when the written word is necessary, and many people still prefer cursive to printing.
I remember being excited to learn cursive in fourth grade because that meant I could “write like an adult.” All legal documents, checks, and credit cards are generally signed with a cursive signature, so learning cursive made me feel one step closer to the adult world when I was a kid. Of course, every teacher from fourth grade on required all work to be done in cursive writing because they wanted us to practice our newly learned skill. That force of habit made cursive my preferred and best mode of writing.
So what happens when students can’t read the letter from grandma or the note from their boss? Will they print their names rather than sign all documents? When students study history, how will they read primary source materials when many are written in cursive?
I’ve already discovered more immediate problems in the classroom. Since MAP and PARCC testing remove our school computers from classroom use for about 15 weeks a year (a quarter and a half), students are often forced to write their formal papers by hand rather than compose on the computer. While I used to leave one class period to copy final drafts of papers, students who print rather than write cursive often require two to three class periods to complete the same work. Printing is a slower process than writing cursive. This has also been a hindrance when students complete on-demand timed writing in class, much like The College Board found on the SAT essays.
Additionally, students cannot read my feedback on assignments when I write in cursive. I was surprised the first time multiple students came up to me and asked me to read what I had written on their papers. My printing is not very neat, and it takes me much longer to respond. As a result, printing comments means I usually offer less feedback and grading time is extended.
The Future?
What does all this mean for the future of cursive writing? Personally, I hope districts look at current research and decide the benefits of teaching cursive outweigh the time it takes in the elementary curriculum. Cursive writing is one of the skills I learned as a child that has been used most often in my adult life. Many people thought computers would be the death of writing by hand; turns out they were wrong.
What do you think about this issue? Does your district still teach cursive writing?
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