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The video was published on March 24, 2018. It has not been revised. The video explains what the benefits of learning cursive are. It is from th video" The benefits of cursive handwriting" by National Post. The video does not have any errors, this video was made to inform on how it is beneficial to learn cursive handwriting.

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The video was published on June 10, 2014. It has not been revised. The video shows how cursive writing is helpful to the brain. It is from the video" Why Cursive is so good for your brain" by Seeker. The video had no errors, and this video was made to teach me how cursive is good for the brain.

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The image was published on November 15, 2012. It has been revised in 2010. The image shows how cursive writing will be important for the future. It is from the image "Illinois Cursive writing" illustrated by Eric Allie. The image did not have any errors, this image was made to inform me that cursive writing will be needed when you get older.

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Illinois cursive writing mandate for schools

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The image was published in 2013. It has not been revised. The image shows how it is crazy that kids do not learn cursive anymore. It is from the image" Speed Bump" illustrated by Dave Coverly. The image had no errors to be fixed, this image was made to inform me that kids do not learn cursive anymore.

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Speed Bump - Cursive Comics And Cartoons | The Cartoonist Group

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See Speed Bump at The Cartoonist Group, thousands of searchable high-quality editorial cartoons and comic strips

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The image was published in 2020. It has been revised in 2020. The image shows how kids can be confused learning cursive. It is from the image"Confused Kid Cartoon" illustrated by Victor Brave. The image has nothing to be corrected, this image was made to inform that cursive can be confusing for kids.

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Child Thinking Looking Vector Illustration Stock Vector (Royalty Free) 272185301

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Find Child Thinking Looking Vector Illustration stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Thousands of new, high-quality pictures added every day.

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The image was published on April 8, 2019. It hasn't been revised. The image shows a kid learning how to write in cursive. It is from the image "How Learning Cursive Can Be Advantageous" illustrated by Laura Comino. The image was free of errors and it was made to teach my that kids are attempting to learn cursive.

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Every once in a while, a tweet about how schools taught cursive for "no reason" surfaces, taking many Americans back to the foggy memory of those couple of classes in elementary school where they were taught cursive.

Just realized I learned cursive writing in school for no reason

- Piques (@piques15) March 22, 2019

Yet, learning cursive is far from useless. On the contrary, it has nothing but benefits, to the point where the many European countries that make their children learn to write exclusively in cursive end up with significant advantages.

What A Time To Be French!

I was raised in France from age 2 to 12, and therefore spent all of my elementary education years, and most of middle school, in the French education system. I learned to write in cursive, as print letters had no place in the classroom, except on the actual print of our textbooks. All of my and my peers' notes, quizzes, tests and reports were written in cursive, with fancy fountain pens.

Upon immigrating to the U.S. in 8th grade, I was stunned by the fact that so little people here knew how to write in, or even read cursive. Girls would ask me to write their name in cursive for them, because they were curious what it would look like. On final exams, I would be ask to print my written answers, because my teachers feared the examiners would not be able to read cursive. Until I finished high school, it became a habit for me to write in print on all of my exams, as I was afraid that my responses might be voided. From experience, I can safely say that writing in print tires your hand much more quickly, in addition to being slower to write as a whole. (Having to write my AP English Language and Composition exam in print was a nightmare.)

I nevertheless kept taking class notes and any assignments that were not going to be turned in in cursive. To this day, in lectures especially, my notes are in cursive, allowing me to write a lot faster and with much more ease than a lot of my peers. If I really apply myself, I can actually write down a lecturer's words verbatim as they are speaking, because of the fact that cursive allows me to not lift my pen as I am writing, and gives my hand much faster, supple movement.

Cursive And Its Psychology

Aside from my own experience with cursive, this writing form allows you to do a lot more than write faster and sign your own name. The psychology behind it has found and proven that knowing and regularly using cursive tremendously helps in developing one's fine-motor skills. In other words, your hand-eye coordination, or what you would need to play sports, create art, play music, or doing anything requiring both your eyes and hands, is greatly improved if you know cursive. If you want to improve your art especially, start writing in cursive.

In other, fancier words, Suzanne Baruch Asherson for the New York Times puts it this way: "Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing."

Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing.

Not only does cursive help with fine motor skills and coordination, it helps young kids with learning how to grip writing utensils and helps remember spelling by creating muscle memory. There is even evidence that it helps dyslexic children, by helping them differentiate between easily confusing print letters, like "b," "p," "d" and "q," which all look different in cursive. Experts such as Marilyn Zecher, a language specialist at the Atlantic Seaboard Dyslexia Education Center, say that it's those letter differences that greatly help children take control of their dyslexia at an early age.

Cursive In Business

Even if you do not opt into a career that has you communicating with European executives that may write only in cursive, it's professional to know it. Aside from simply signing your name on documents (which, again, my peers in 8th grade did not know how to do), it can make you look really good in the eyes of prospective employers. From writing a simple thank-you note after an interview, to being able to read historical or even current handwritten documents, knowing cursive is likely to give you a leg-up in your field.

Why You Should Learn Today

The Constitution of the United States itself was written in cursive, yet so many Americans are not able to even read it. There is nothing more patriotic than being able to read the legal basis of your own country. Not only that, but your fine-motor skills and business opportunities would greatly benefit from you learning cursive.

So, if you do not already know how to write in cursive, you should definitely start today. With classes, worksheets, videos and so many other free resources available online, there are many ways to start improving your own motor skills today. The most important thing, however, is to ensure that cursive makes its way back into American schools, for the sake of the future generations.
Photo: WTTW News

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How Learning Cursive Can Be Advantageous

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Every once in a while, a tweet about how schools taught cursive for "no reason" surfaces, taking many Americans back to the foggy memory of those couple of classes in elementary school where they were taught cursive. Just realized I learned cursive writing in school for no reason - Piques (@piques15) March 22, 2019 Yet, learning cursive is far from useless.

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The image was published on June 4, 2018.It has not been revised. The image shows what the cursive alphabet is. It is from the image "Cursive Alphabet: Your Guide To Cursive Writing" illustrated by Juan Ramos. The image had no errors, and the image was teaching me the cursive alphabet.

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Learning the cursive alphabet is the best guide to cursive writing. Many people approach cursive writing as a way to be more creative and use handwriting in more situations.

Back in the day, many kids were taught how to write using cursive letters at school. But this skill is less widely taught these days. The good news is that kids and adults alike (in fact, people of all ages) can learn the cursive alphabet with just a little bit of patience.

There are, in fact, many different ways to learn to write the cursive alphabet but some are more effective than others.

In this article, we will teach you one of the most effective methods there is. This method is perfect for children, but adults can also benefit from following it.

So, now, without much further ado, here is your guide to cursive letter writing.

What Do You Need to Know?

There are a few things that you need to be familiar with before you start learning (or teaching someone else) to do cursive letters.

You will need to use a cursive chart or worksheet (you can download that for free) and refer to it several times until you feel confident enough to write in cursive without it.

I went to an all-girls' Catholic school for, like, six years during the time when kids actually had handwriting class. I've always had a propensity for getting the cursive down pretty well. - Meghan Markle

Only practice one or two letters per lesson. It is far more effective to keep your cursive lessons short and only focus on one or two letters at the time.

The best thing is to internalize how to write each cursive letter before moving on to the next. Building up confidence is the most important thing to achieve in this method.

But there are a few specific things that anyone learning cursive writing must know.

Getting Started

The first thing to know is the position of each letter. All the cursive letters have a body line upon which they sit.

The second thing you will need to know is the right angle of cursive writing, which is always slightly slanted to the right.

Next, there is the shape of each cursive letter. The main difference between print letters and cursive letters is that in cursive the letters are rounded into ovals and not circles.

You will also need to know how to start and how to join letters. There is a sloping starting stroke for each letter that begins in the base body line. Just as important is to know how to end and join letters. All cursive letters end in a stroke at the upper base line.

And, finally, you will need to know that some letters have loops, sometimes at the bottom and sometimes at the top, depending on the letter in question.

Lower Case Letters

It is always a good idea to begin practicing with lower case letters.

The best letters to begin with are the ones with an upward stroke. They are the following letters: b, f, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w, x, y.

Some of these letters require just one stroke while others just need one. Grab a pencil, a piece of paper, a worksheet, and get practicing.

Most of these lower letters stay within the top and the bottom line. Some of them go all the way to the bottom line, while others go all the way up. Only lower-case f goes beyond the bottom and the top lines.

Mastering these lower-case letters is the first big milestone before you can move on to other, more complex, letters.

But do not try to run before you can run. Begin with the lower-case letter u. This is, by far, the easiest cursive letter to write because it only requires one simple stroke. Practice u and when you have mastered it, you will have all you need to move on to i, j, m, n, r, v, w, y.

After those letters, move on to h. This letter will also give you the basis for letters b, f, and k.

Once you have mastered the lower-case upward stroke letters, you should try their curved stoker counterparts: a, c, d, e, g, o.

Lowercase o is the first one from this group you should attempt. And, when you have it, move on to g and then the rest of them: c, d, and e.

Uppercase Letters

Only attempt uppercase letters once you are confident enough that you have mastered the lowercase ones. If you have, congratulations, you are already halfway through mastering cursive writing.

The first group of letters you need to practice include the letters C, E, G, L, and O. Begin with L and then move on to the other ones in the same group.

The next letter, R, is one of the most complex ones so it might take some practice to master it. But if you have gone this far and master all the previous letters you have all it takes to master R.

Once you get R, you can use variations on your method, so you can achieve B, D, F, I, J, P, and T.

If you use worksheets, follow the other that we have laid out for you in this article, and get plenty of patient practice you will soon master writing cursive letters!

Was this article helpful?

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Cursive Alphabet: Your Guide To Cursive Writing | Science Trends

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Learning the cursive alphabet is the best guide to cursive writing. Many people approach cursive writing as a way to be more creative and use handwriting in more situations. Back in the day, many kids were taught how to write using cursive letters at school. But this skill is less widely taught these days.

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The article was published on November 15, 2013. The article has not been revised. The article is how handwriting is a waste of time. It is from the article "Cursive Handwriting will no longer be taught in schools because it's a big old waste of time" which is written by John Bruce. When I read the article there were no mistakes, and this article is meant to inform others how cursive is not important.

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iStock

Also, because computers.

The biggest controversy to take place in the world of penmanship is happening right now: The Common Core education standards dictate that cursive will no longer be taught in elementary schools. And things are getting pretty heated.

Where does your allegiance fall?

Seven states-California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah-are now fighting to keep cursive in the curriculum. Their argument is that "it helped distinguish the literate from the illiterate."

Jokes on them because all kids are illiterate these days. Because again: computers.

"It's much more likely that keyboarding will help students succeed in careers and in school than it is that cursive will," said Morgan Polikoff, assistant professor of K-12 policy and leadership at the University of Southern California. So instead of cursive, kids might learn keyboarding.

Here's our two cents: You spend the entire year in third grade learning how to write in cursive and then will never, ever write in cursive again. Instead, schools should add additional spelling lessons to the curriculum. Kids are more tech savvy these days, but because of Microsoft Spell Check, NOBODY knows how to spell without a computer anymore.

Let's spend that time teaching kids that there is a difference between language used to text and tweet and proper, written English. It's no longer a matter of knowing "your" vs. "you're," it's learning that it's definitely never "ur."

Also, the capital, cursive "Q" looks so stupid.

Advocates for learning cursive (including Idaho representative Linden Bateman, 72) argue that "more areas of the human brain are engaged when children use cursive handwriting than when they keyboard."

Bateman continues, "The fluid motion employed when writing script enhances hand-eye coordination and develops fine motor skills, in turn promoting reading, writing and cognition skills."

And if that's the reasons schools taught cursive, sure, fine. That's great. Also, there are plenty of other ways that kids can develop hand-eye coordination that doesn't involve spending a year of their prime development time learning a new alphabet.

But Bateman also argues that forgoing cursive may have much more consequential results: He argues we "will lose the ability to interpret valuable cultural resources-historical documents, ancestors' letters and journals, handwritten scholarship - if they can't read cursive."

"The Constitution of the United States is written in cursive. Think about that," Bateman said.

The Constitution of the United States is also available online, typed out. Not in cursive. Soooooo...We're probably good.

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Cursive Handwriting Will No Longer Be Taught in Schools: Should It?

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iStock Also, because computers. The biggest controversy to take place in the world of penmanship is happening right now: The Common Core education standards dictate that cursive will no longer be taught in elementary schools. And things are getting pretty heated. Where does your allegiance fall?

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The article was published in 2013. It has been revised in 2020. The article is for teaching how important cursive really is. It is from the article "Cursive Handwriting : How Important it really is" and written by Irene Baker. When I read the article there were no mistakes that I had seen, and this article is trying to inform us that cursive handwriting is important.

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Many of us would answer: "Very important!" While Montessorians have deliberated for years whether children should learn to write first in cursive or print, we've all thought cursive was an essential skill. Now there is a lively debate occurring in the field of education about whether, in this age of technology, cursive handwriting is necessary at all.

Cursive is not required by the national educational Common Core Standards. Many states across the country are removing or reducing cursive instruction from the curriculum while only a few states have deliberated and decided to keep it.

What's the best way to respond when parents ask why handwriting is a key component of the Montessori environment? Montessori discovered the importance of learning through movement and the senses. Research corroborates the vital hand/brain connection, proving that new pathways in the brain develop as children use their hands to explore and interact with the world. Of course it doesn't need to be an either/or decision: children can be computer literate and learn cursive.

Research Shows the Value of Learning Cursive

Fascinating new research points out the benefits of cursive writing for cognitive development. One study concluded that elementary students need at least "15 minutes of handwriting daily for cognitive, writing and motor skills and reading comprehension improvement." A recent article in Psychology Today cited research which shows that:

Students "wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard." This study included second, fourth, and sixth graders.

"Cursive writing helps train the brain to integrate visual (and) tactile information, and fine motor dexterity."

The regions of the brain that are activated during reading were "activated during hand writing, but not during typing."

Learning to Write: Cursive or Print?

"Written language can be acquired more easily by children of four years than by those of six. While children of six usually need at least two years to learn how to write, children of four years learn this second language within a few months."
-Maria Montessori

Observers of Montessori schools are often astonished by the beautiful cursive hand of four-and five-year-old children. Montessori noted that the straight and oblique lines of printing were more difficult for children to form than cursive. The uninterrupted movements of the hand may make cursive letters easier for children to form, and for this reason, some Montessori primary classrooms introduce children to cursive sandpaper letters first. Other Montessori schools wait to teach cursive to lower elementary students.

Some non-Montessori reading experts have begun teaching cursive before printing, because they find that cursive instruction improves literacy outcomes for many students and that "the connections between letters required in cursive writing may reduce letter reversals."

Whether we begin by teaching print or cursive, it's clear that it is a very different process to touch a key and see a letter appear on a screen, than it is to develop the skills and brain/hand connections necessary to be able to write that letter yourself.

"We directly prepare the child, not only for writing, but also for penmanship, paying attention to the beauty of form (having the children touch the letters in script form)..."
-Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method

In the Montessori primary classroom, children trace the Sandpaper Letters with their fingers and often draw letters in a sand tray or on an easel or chalkboard. As they progress, children can copy onto paper the words and sentences they build with the Movable Alphabet.

In the 1950s, my aunt in Nebraska had never heard of Montessori. Searching for a way to help her struggling students form letters, she poured sandy cat litter into a box and encouraged the children to draw letters with their fingers in this material. They loved it!

Handwriting across the curriculum is encouraged in the Montessori classroom. Older children write their own poems, stories, and research reports. One of the best ways for children to learn geography, history, science, and even math, is to work with the materials and write about it (with a pencil!)

Older children are also fascinated with learning to write with a quill pen or Chinese calligraphy brush. Teaching elementary-age children different scripts, such as italics, and showing them illuminated manuscripts with decorated capital letters can inspire students to view handwriting as an art form. Teachers have reported that their students' own cursive writing improved after working with calligraphy pens and different scripts.

"We Are Writers!"

I once had the pleasure of teaching at a Montessori school in an extremely diverse community where over 30 languages were spoken. One day during recess, two eight-year-old boys from my class - one whose mother tongue was Tagalog and the other whose first language was Mandarin - were perched at the top of the jungle gym waving sticks in the air and tapping them on the highest bar with great enthusiasm.

They shouted to me: "Guess who we are? Guess who we are? "

Expecting that they were pretending to be gun-wielding superheroes, I walked over to get a better look. Before I could speak, they called out: "We are ! And we are writing the next Goosebumps book." (At that time Goosebumps books were as popular as Harry Potter.)

Again the boys flourished their sticks and now I could clearly see their proud faces, fingers holding their sticks in the proper pencil grip, the cursive writing flowing across the top of the monkey bars.

-by Irene Baker, MEd, Montessori Educational Consultant at Montessori Services. She holds both primary (ages 3-6) and elementary (ages 6-12) Montessori certifications and has taught at all three levels. For over 15 years, she has served as a Montessori teacher-trainer for both primary and elementary levels and has presented workshops for teachers at schools and AMS national conferences. Her work with both students and teachers is infused with the knowledge she has gained from her passions: history, social justice, non-violent (compassionate) communication, nature, meditation, music, and poetry.

-Originally Published 2013

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Many of us would answer: "Very important!" While Montessorians have deliberated for years whether children should learn to write first in cursive or print, we've all thought cursive was an essential skill. Now there is a lively debate occurring in the field of education about whether, in this age of technology, cursive handwriting is necessary at all.

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The article was published on April 16, 2017. It has been revised in 2020. The article is for learning cursive. It is from the article "Cursive Penmanship: A 21st - Century Skill" and written by Michelle Tefertiller. There are no mistakes in her writing, and this article is trying to inform us why cursive in important.

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Michelle Tefertiller, Author at Memoria Press

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Saving Western Civilization one student at a time!

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The article was published on February 20, 2017. It has been revised in 2020. The article is for teaching all kids cursive. It is from the article "Why we should teach cursive writing to all kids" and written by Miranda Devine. There are no grammar or spelling mistakes, and it is trying to teach you the policy of changes for cursive.

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Taken to extremes, liberalism eats its own.

Exhibit A is the decline of one of the most prestigious and proudly liberal private schools in the city.

Ethical Culture Fieldston in Riverdale, founded in 1878 by the son of a rabbi as a model for social justice, racial equality and intellectual freedom, now is convulsed by allegations of anti-Semitism, racial-discrimination lawsuits, quarrels over identity politics, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department run amok and a unionized faculty impervious to criticism.

Disgruntled parents are considering ways of extracting their children, angry donors are closing their wallets and distraught teachers are resigning or taking leaves of absence.

For some parents, concerns were crystallized when Fieldston students became aware that a YouTube video, "Secrets of the Living Dolls," featured a new member of the faculty, a self-described "large black man" with a fetish for dressing up as a "sexy white woman" in a lifelike latex mask and breasts.

"I've fought for LGBT issues," says one Fieldston parent, "but this is indicative of the weird things happening around the school which are rooted around intersectionality and an obsession about identity politics and race."

A school insider says the video "bothers a particular group of parents, but in the hierarchy of problems at the school I don't consider this to be a particularly big one."

Far more troubling is an atmosphere at the school of "rampant, systemic anti-Semitism."

The issue came to a head this past November when Fieldston invited Kayum Ahmed, who works for George Soros' Open Society Foundations, to speak at an assembly, and he likened Israel to Nazi Germany.

"The victims of the Holocaust and violence have become perpetrators of violence against Palestinians," Ahmed said, prompting the Anti-Defamation League to blast him for an "outrageous . . . virulent [attempt] to blame the victim."

The school erupted. Parents noted that, while the school had no problem inviting the controversial Ahmed, when a female student wanted to invite Jonathan Haidt, author of The Coddling of the American Mind, "administrators threatened to boycott" because he was seen as conservative.

A request for an interview with Head of School Jessica Bagby was referred to an external communications agency Wednesday, but her office pointed to a letter she sent to parents a week after the assembly, decrying Ahmed's remarks as "deeply hurtful."

"We will not accept anti-Semitism. We will not accept racism . . . sexism . . . homophobia . . . transphobia . . . xenophobia. We will not accept hatred in all its ugly shapes and forms."

In January, to placate angry parents, two rabbis were invited to speak at Fieldston.

But the event was marred by a protest staged by history and sex-ed teacher JB Brager, a self-described "trans-Jewish scholar" who goes by the pronoun "they." Brager "flipped the bird" at the rabbis, according to two parents, who viewed a video taken by a student. A few days later, Brager left the school.

One of the most contentious issues at Fieldston has been the introduction of affinity groups, separating children by race.

The groups "are rooted in a sociological model of whiteness that completely disregards the lived Jewish experience and, for a community with an above-average population of second- and third- and even first-generation Jews that was deeply problematic," said one insider.

"There are relationships with the school that will never be repaired. It really represented a turning point in the trajectory of the school and uncovered a degree of anti-Semitism that Fieldston [previously] has been immune from."

A mother says the groups were a "pretext . . . They take kids of color and make them angry . . . It is the start of the blame culture. White people are to blame. The poison is far-reaching."

Fieldston is paralyzed by "wokeness," the mother says.

Another member of the community blames "an extreme far-left group of teachers . . . and the most important identity at the school is being a person of color or gender- nonconforming . . . Boys and white people are demonized. If you're a straight white Jewish boy, you're the worst."

A big problem at the school is the fact that the teachers are unionized, says organizational psychologist David Nygren, who conducted a review of Fieldston's corporate governance in 2017.

"They are a unionized faculty and they might have their own set of values to champion, which may be at odds with the brand promise Ethical Culture delivers to students," he says. In other words, firing or disciplining nonperforming teachers is difficult.

Another insider lays some blame on "an age when so many parents think their kids are flawless . . . But the toxicity that exists at the school makes it impossible for parents and teachers to have collaborative constructive relationships . . ."

The political angst at the school spilled over when Donald Trump was elected president. "The school was closed for days," says one parent. "The first day, teachers didn't come to class, they protested the second day and the third day there was counseling . . . What kind of fragile snowflakes are we cultivating that they can't deal with a presidential election that doesn't go their way?"

The irony is that the indoctrination appears to be backfiring, with some students quietly adopting conservative views.

"Moms were coming to the school crying that their kids were growing up so conservative because that was their rebellion against what was going on with the school" says one insider.

The irony is delicious but for many families the decline of the school they love is devastating.
Past hits Bloomy
We shouldn't be surprised by Mike Bloomberg's lame performances in the Democratic presidential debates.

In 40 years of running his own business, the autocratic billionaire has surrounded himself with supplicants.

No one challenged him and that was the way he liked it.

Not for him the rigorous quarterly earnings reports that keep public companies accountable to stockholders. The only investor Bloomberg had to answer to was himself.

He is even sheltered on the home front.

Where other candidates live with spouses who are willing to deliver the sort of savage truths that prevent repeat errors, Bloomberg, 78, is not married.

His girlfriend, Diana Taylor, who describes her role in their relationship as that of a "unicorn" and step-"friend" to his adult children, is hardly going to rock the boat.

He's spent his life avoiding conflict and now he can't defend himself.
Flying CEO a hypocrite
Well, look here. Just last month BlackRock boss Larry Fink lectured the world's most powerful CEOs on the threat of climate change: "Every government, company, and shareholder must confront climate change."

Then he hopped into his greenhouse-gas-spewing private jet and flew to Australia this week to proselytize sustainability, according to the Australian Financial Review's Joe Aston.

Fink's Gulfstream 650 also was spotted in Zurich during Davos last month and in Frankfurt in September.

This would be the same Larry Fink who let The Post know in 2011 that he flies only commercial. "Fink prefers coach," headlined the report of BlackRock proudly eschewing private jets.

"He flies commercial, and yes, he takes off his shoes and stands in line with the rest of us," a close colleague of Fink said at the time.

Witness the billionaire's creed: Do as we preach, not as we do.

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The irony behind decline of an elite liberal private school: Devine

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Taken to extremes, liberalism eats its own. Exhibit A is the decline of one of the most prestigious and proudly liberal private schools in the city.

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The article was published in August 22, 2019. It has been revised in 2020. The article is for teaching cursive writing in schools. It is from the article "Why cursive handwriting needs to make a school comeback" and written by Hetty Roessingh. There are no spelling or grammar mistakes, and this article is meant to inform you on why cursive writing should make a school comeback.

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Teaching connected-style handwriting, otherwise known as cursive handwriting, has fallen out of fashion on many school curricula. Older generations have sometimes been shocked that some younger people today can't sign their names on official documents or even read a handwritten note.

Canadian provinces have seen a decline in teaching and learning cursive. In Ontario schools, for example, teachers might introduce cursive, but it's not mandatory.

Such a development is reflective of larger trends of focusing less on teaching and assessing handwriting for itself - and more on what it's communicating.

Alberta's kindergarten to Grade 9 curriculum, for example, stipulates that students learn to "listen, speak, read and write" and also envisions outcomes that require printing, such as connecting prior ideas. But the curriculum doesn't mandate assessing printing skills themselves. In Alberta's 2018 new draft curriculum yet to be implemented, cursive is mentioned, but it's not identified as a competency.

Beyond a nostalgia for the pre-digital age, there are good reasons why cursive handwriting needs to make a comeback. As a researcher who has studied the relationship of handwriting to literacy, along with other scholars, I've found that developing fluency in printing and handwriting so that it comes automatically matters for literacy outcomes. Handwriting is also an elegant testimony to the human capacity for written literacy and an inspiring symbol of the unique power of the human voice.

Too difficult?

In today's age of digital literacy, many think handwriting is irrelevant altogether and a waste of precious instructional time. But touching a "d" on the keyboard, for example, does not create the internal model of a "d" that printing does. Keyboarding can wait.

Some may associate cursive with any number of outdated formats of handwriting that may have indeed seemed like a curse to master - loopy, twisty and hard on little hands in terms of muscle movement and also for visual memory.

But handwriting is only difficult if it is not automatic and, in turn, offloaded into long-term memory. Evolving research in the neurosciences underscores the importance of developing automatic skills in relation to what educational psychologists call the cognitive load.

Lessons learned from sports or the performing arts highlight the importance of establishing neuronal connections that promote fluid movement. With reading and writing, too, the keys to unlocking creativity or interpretation of story elements are also related to being able to write automatically.

Lack of fluency

By Grade 4, the cognitive demands of curriculum quickly accelerate: students must produce more, faster and better. Students who have fluent handwriting consequently have more working memory capacity available to plan, organize, revise and retrieve sophisticated vocabulary.

In a study I conducted with my colleagues of about 250 Grade 4 students in an Alberta school, we found that only about half of the students in our study achieved the necessary threshold in handwriting.

These children's handwriting was insufficient to communicate the complexity of vocabulary and ideas expected in Grade 4. Most students had vocabulary they were not able to mobilize onto the page. Students' failure to reach the required threshold of expression at this level is associated with a phenomenon recognized by researchers as the Grade 4 slump, a drop in outcomes from which students may not necessarily recover.

Improving literacy outcomes

Schools must and can do better, starting early. The key is not only teaching cursive, but a greater focus on all printing to cursive handwriting, spelling instruction and fine motor skills. These developments are essential for literacy foundations in the kindergarten to Grade 3 years.

Read more: Summer play that enriches kids' reading skills - 8 fine motor activities for little fingers

Building on these earlier skills, the key to improving academic outcomes in Grade 4 is teaching young students to connect their letters, resulting in a style of handwriting that is legible and fluent.

Steven Graham, an expert in special education, writing and literacy at Arizona State University, advocates for beginning with printing or "traditional manuscript" and transitioning to what he calls mixed mostly manuscript, whereby the child is learning a continuous stroke.

Similarly, an example from early literacy scholar Sibylle Hurschler Lichtsteiner of Germany shows a transition from manuscript letters to joined letters. It evolves naturally, with support, from children's initial style of print in grades 2 to 3. Once young students have internalized stable, mental models of letter shapes, they can generalize and recognize various types of cursive script with a bit of practice.

Power of the pen

Testimonies draw attention to the power of cursive handwriting. The film Saving Private Ryan made famous the historical Bixby Letter written to the mother of sons killed in the American Civil War. While historians debate whether Abraham Lincoln or a member of his staff actually wrote the letter, ongoing interest in the letter through history suggests how human handwriting conveys personhood, care and captures imagination.

In our own era, Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate ever, reminds us:

"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world."

Although Yousafzai first came to global attention via blogging, through her book Malala's Magic Pencil she suggests a connection between the elegance and craft of a child's handwriting and their personal agency.

Yousafzai's handwriting has become a symbol of her advocacy. It demonstrates the power of written literacy, its intimate relationship to human identity and existence and its potential to remind the world of ultimate belief in human agency for good. Generations before, the young diarist Anne Frank did the same.

Our society impoverishes children if we don't learn from those who have gone before us. People who learn how to spell and to develop legible, fluent handwriting will have tools at their avail to confidently express themselves and circumvent inconveniences like losing power on one's digital device.

It's high time to put cursive skills back on the curriculum across Canada.

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Why cursive handwriting needs to make a school comeback

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Teaching connected-style handwriting, otherwise known as cursive handwriting, has fallen out of fashion on many school curricula. Older generations have sometimes been shocked that some younger people today can't sign their names on official documents or even read a handwritten note. Canadian provinces have seen a decline in teaching and learning cursive.