Curse of Cursive: The Gradual Death of an Elementary School Art Form
Until recently cursive was an art form. Now it is a mystery.
During my stint at summer camp in the 2010s, I would receive handwritten letters from my grandmother. She writes in perfect cursive so, of course, I would complain about how hard they were to read. Unlike her mother, my mother typed her letters so she could add pictures and make sure I could read them. My grandmother stayed steadfast with her cursive letters much to my chagrin until my last summer at camp in 2019. Looking back on it, I enjoyed the connection I felt with my family when I sent hand-written letters about my week sailing, swimming, and canoeing. But I also enjoyed the secretiveness of the letters that my friends couldn’t read. I enjoyed taking my time to decrypt each and every word. I enjoyed cursive.
At the same time, I was scribbling my stories about camp for my grandmother, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers removed cursive from the Common Core State Standards on the grounds that teaching students cursive was less important than teaching them to communicate via technology. But on what grounds?
Does a block letter signature thwart forgeries more than a swoopy signature? What happens when young people who are not familiar with cursive have to read historical documents like the Constitution? And do the fine motor skills gained in the act of forming letters and words outweigh the painstaking teaching of the skill?
The gradual death of the swirls and curls of letters does not come as a shock to most. Sitting in my third-grade classroom I dreaded the cursive workbook page placed in front of me every morning. I wished that cursive would disappear. Now that it has, I can see the benefit of writing cursive to be more deliberate in word choice, protect against forgery, stimulate connections in the brain, and can help children with dyslexia distinguish letters.
My signature is a cursive, sloppy mess that never looks the same twice, which is exactly why I am protected from forgery. According to Heidi H. Harralson, a graphologist in Tucson, “Even people that didn’t learn cursive, they usually have some type of cursive form signature, but it’s not written very well,” she said. “It tends to be more abstract, illegible, and simplistic. If they’re writing with block letters it’s easier to forge.” Having a unique cursive signature adds security to bank deposits, and credit card charges, and prevents check fraud, even if the signature is an initial like my mother’s cursive LLK or my father’s full name signature: Brendan John Peter Kennedy.
Most importantly, Cursive helps with fine motor skills. The British Dyslexia Association notes that the continuous flow of cursive writing ultimately improves writing speed. It can also help dyslexics distinguish easily confused letters such as “b,” “d,” “p” and “q.” Because their hands develop a physical memory of the letters while writing, dyslexics can more consistently and correctly reproduce the shapes. Similarly to dyslexia, teaching children cursive develops unique brain functions and trains reading skills while creating legibility and efficiency in writing, which remains a socially relevant skill. The motor training in learning cursive writing also aids in recognizing cursive letters. Longcamp et al. explain that after enough repetition of handwriting motions, the brain stores each letter as a “motor program” to which it then refers in order to identify letters observed or constructed in the mind.
Activities like practicing an instrument and handwriting have been proven to help with fine motor skills and contribute to other skills down the road. William Klemm, senior professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, says, “Handwriting (cursive writing) dynamically engages widespread areas of both cerebral hemispheres.” He references brain scans taken during handwriting that show activation of extensive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory. Jeanette Farmer, a handwriting remediation specialist, provides a strong argument for cursive instruction. “Handwriting has a physiological/psychological link in the brain. This link is so strong that nothing else done in the classroom can compare with the powerful impact that repetitively manipulating the thumb and fingers over time has on the young brain.” The fine motor skills gained by handwriting and especially cursive writing help children develop everyday skills such as brushing their teeth, playing in the classroom and developing athletic abilities.
Also, great writers such as Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Vladimir Nabokov, JK Rowling, Jackie Collins, and Quentin Tarantino all wrote their manuscripts in cursive. The act of slowing down to remember and replicate cursive letters allows us to be more deliberate in word choice and thus potentially create better works. I have always written my to-do lists in cursive. Cursive writing allows my brain to remember my list and writing in cursive slows me down enough to help me fully break down what I need to do that day.
In my everyday life, I can see the benefits of cursive, from my sloppy unforgeable signature to my excellent fine motor skills and my ability to slow down and be deliberate in sentence structure and word choice.
So should cursive really be on the chopping block for elementary school education?
Works Cited
Allie. “J. K. Rowling’s Handwriting.” My Strength and My Song, 29 Nov. 2010, strengthandsong.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/j-k-rowlings-handwriting/.
Long, Cindy. “The Great Cursive Writing Debate | NEA.” Nea.Org, 2023, https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/great-cursive-writing-debate#:~:text=On%20team%20cursive%2C%20advocates%20point,letters%20in%20a%20continuous%20flow. Accessed 17 Jan 2023.
Longcamp, Marieke, Céline Boucard, Jean-Claude Gilhodes, Jean-Luc Anton, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, and Jean-Luc Velay. “Learning through Hand- or Typewriting Influences Visual Recognition of New Graphic Shapes: Behavioral and Functional Imaging Evidence.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20.5 (2008): 802–815. Print.
Marble, Colleen. “Cursive Handwriting Helps Students Overcome Dyslexia | DOMTAR Newsroom.” DOMTAR Newsroom, 2016, https://newsroom.domtar.com/cursive-helps-students-overcome-dyslexia/. Accessed 10 Jan 2023.
Mulvahill, Elizabeth. “Research Shows Huge Benefits To Learning Cursive, But Most States Don’t Require It.” We Are Teachers, 2019, https://www.weareteachers.com/cursive-instruction-benefits/. Accessed 10 Jan 2023.
Van der Meer, Audrey L. H., et al. “The Importance of Cursive Handwriting over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults.” Frontiers in Psychology, 28 June 202. Frontiers in Psychology, newsroom.domtar.com/cursive-writing-dyslexia/#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20cursive%20writing,memory%20and%20stimulates%20brain%20development. Accessed 12 Dec. 2022.
