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C~Feb 27 2015
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A~euronews
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P~Persuade

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A sign of the times: why some schools are erasing cursive writing - learning world

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C~March 26, 2017
R~Agrees
A~ VOA News

A~No its a video
P~persuade

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In Age of Keyboards, US Kids Learn Cursive Handwriting

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C~It was posted October
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P~Informs

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C~ It was posted August 23 2019
R~This article agrees
A~Travis Guillory
A~No
P~Persuade

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TULSA - You may want to hold off before sending that handwritten note to your grandchild.

That's because a growing number of young people can no longer read cursive.

Since the U.S. adopted Common Core standards in public schools back in 2010, cursive has declined and even disappeared entirely in some school districts.

But, is erasing cursive to the detriment of future generations?

We're doing some homework on the collapse of cursive in this Denver7 360 report, talking with a calligrapher who says there's still benefits to knowing cursive, a professor who teaches future teachers, a tutor who says good riddance and another who says it still has some practicality.

Let's begin with keeping cursive alive - in the home studio of Srujana Nimmagadda, owner of Menakshee Designs.

"Learning to write well is something that you're never going to regret," said Nimmagadda, whose day job is working at Ball Aerospace as an aerospace engineer. "I know it's unique that I also do calligraphy," she said.

For her, it's not a cloudy issue at all; good handwriting has value.

"I think there's just a different sort of connection that you have receiving a hand-written letter," Nimmagadda said.

And she argues there's a quiet confidence projected when communicating in cursive.

"If there's a way to keep it in schools, I think they should," she said.

That brings us to Dr. Krista Griffin, a literacy professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

"There isn't a lot of research supporting cursive one way or another," Griffin said.

She has 25 years of experience teaching future teachers.

"There's no one-size-fits-all anything in education," Griffin said. "That's what I tell those future teachers."

Griffin says in the 21 st century, with high stakes standardized testing, cursive isn't always worth valuable classroom time, especially given the demands put on teachers today.

"If I'm a teacher and I know my job is dependent on how well my students do, cursive isn't on the test," she said.

But, she also sees strong cognitive learning with reading and writing in cursive.

"When I'm taking notes, I can't move as quickly as when I'm keyboarding," Griffin said. "So, I'm going to be thinking about what the professor is saying and paraphrasing, which is a higher-level cognitive skill."

Other experts agree.

"There's a myth that in the era of computers we don't need handwriting," said a leading national researcher. "That's not what our research is showing. What we found was that children until about Grade 6 were writing more words, writing faster and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting - printing or cursive."

But - Victor Camacho questions the time-commitment given to cursive.

"I learned cursive when I was in 3 rd grade," Camacho said. "And I haven't used it since. There was no real practical reason to use it."

Camacho is now the owner of High Performance Tutoring, with 35 Denver-based tutors. His tutors put a heavy emphasis on STEM disciplines.

"Art is practical in that it kind of feeds our soul in a sense," Camacho said. "But, it's not practical in the sense that, 'Oh - you need to eat.'"

He believes a greater emphasis on things like statistics, personal finance and computer programming would be much more beneficial in school than teaching cursive.

Camacho believes higher proficiency in those skills could also alleviate many ongoing societal issues.

"If we replace cursive with helping people manage their finances, I think that would go a long way," he said. "How to manage money and how compounding interest works and how investments work and risks vs. returns. That's what children should be learning."

Stephanie Rosalky is the owner of Wash Park Tutoring, and she doesn't disagree.

"Cursive is not a skill that is needed today to be successful," Rosalky said. "Everything has really moved to a technology platform."

But, Rosalky says cursive does have practical applications, for example, it can help with disorders like dyslexia on a case-by-case basis.

"It kind of limits some reversals that are happening for students," Rosalky said.

"I have a friend who has dyslexia and she will do less reversals and omit fewer letters when she uses cursive," Griffin said.

Both Griffin and Rosalky also respect the argument that cursive is a long-forgotten, elegant form of writing that is appreciated more by older generations.

"They see it as a very personal way of communicating that gets lost," Griffin said.

"It is beautiful," Rosalky said. "It looks very nice."

And that brings us back to Nimmagadda.

"There's something very grounding about picking up a pen and paper," Nimmagadda said. "There's a lot of history and tradition. You can tell what's happening in a society through the years as you study a style of script."
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Should cursive still be taught in schools?

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TULSA - You may want to hold off before sending that handwritten note to your grandchild. That's because a growing number of young people can no longer read cursive. Since the U.S. adopted Common Core standards in public schools back in 2010, cursive has declined and even disappeared entirely in some school districts.

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C~Does not have a date
R~  Agrees
A~ Marisa Cohen
A~Yes

P~Informs

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When Melissa Morgenlander's daughter Fiona started third grade last year, she was excited about learning what she considered a real "big kid" skill: cursive handwriting. But to Fiona's disappointment, cursive had been dropped from the curriculum. "She was sad about it, and so was I," Morgenlander says. "I worry she'll never be able to read documents like the Constitution. I also wonder what will happen when she has to sign papers without having learned a distinctive signature."

As our lives keep moving to the digital realm, more schools like Morgenlander's are quietly leaving cursive behind. Experts weigh in on whether or not to worry.

The Rise of the Keyboard

A sure sign of the times: Cursive is not even mentioned in the Common Core standards. "Children used to learn print in kindergarten and first grade, then transition to cursive in second or third, but now we have a third important skill to fit in-keyboarding," explains Steven Graham, Ed.D., professor of education at Arizona State University in Tempe. "Schools have to make a decision about where to put in the effort, and if you're only going to have room for one type of writing, print is going to win."

While many parents lament the decline of cursive, and a handful of states have even fought to pass legislation to require it, most education experts are calmer about the issue. "Handwriting is an important skill-when a child prints a letter by hand, a section of the brain becomes activated that underlies reading and spelling skills," says Karin Harman James, Ph.D., associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. However, in her research Dr. James has discovered that the brain activation is the same whether a child writes a letter in print or script. "The two types of writing are also not very different in terms of fine motor skills," she adds.

Dr. Graham agrees. "Most people would say that print is more legible, while cursive is faster, but when you control for the amount of time spent practicing each form of writing, the differences are pretty minimal. You can write legibly and fluidly in both."

There is one area where cursive may have an advantage over print, however. "For kids with learning difficulties, cursive writing can be very helpful," says Emily Levy, Ed.D., a writing tutor and founder of EBL Coaching in New York. " Kids with dyslexia tend to reverse letters, and in print some letters (like b and d) look very similar. In cursive, they are much more distinct from each other."

A Script for Script

Beyond activating the brain, most of the arguments for cursive involve history and sentiment. Still, if you're a stickler for a scripted sign-off, you should know that a signature does not have to be legible to be official (just look at your doctor's!), and surprisingly, it doesn't even have to be in cursive, says Dr. Graham. You can write out your child's name a few different ways in script and have him develop his own variation, or simply have him write it in print with a few connecting lines, suggests Dr. James.

However, if you want your child to learn this timeless, elegant skill, practice at home. Many workbooks teach the basic cursive letter shapes, but they should only be a jumping-off point, says Dr. James. "We know that the brain doesn't learn as well when a child is tracing letters, which is what most workbooks do," she says. "It seems best to learn writing freehand-that's how children develop the pathways that become important for reading." Because writing letters in the air or with shaving cream or sand does not require the same fine motor skills as practicing forms with a writing utensil, it may be less valuable than printing practice, Dr. James adds.

Once your child has learned each letter, write out a series of words for him to copy. "I make up lists for my son Ellis with Harry Potter characters and Mets players, which makes it interesting," says Eileen Mullin, of Rego Park, New York.

Practice Makes Perfect

Though learning to write freehand with a pencil is preferable, you can supplement with fun apps if you want your child to learn script, suggests Dr. Levy. She recommends Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Cursive, which has cute videos, or Cursive Writing by Horizon Business, which gives detailed directions for each letter. These apps can help kids recognize cursive well enough to read it.

The main thing is that your child learns to write-in print or script-fluidly enough to express herself freely and legibly enough so that teachers can read her writing. And though Dr. Graham predicts that in a few years most schoolwork and standardized tests will be done on the computer, he doesn't think the mighty pen is going away. "It's a cheap and efficient way to record information," he says. "You can take a pen and paper anywhere."

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When Melissa Morgenlander's daughter Fiona started third grade last year, she was excited about learning what she considered a real "big kid" skill: cursive handwriting. But to Fiona's disappointment, cursive had been dropped from the curriculum. "She was sad about it, and so was I," Morgenlander says.

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C~January 12 2020
R~Against
A~ Melanie Burney and Kristen A Graham
A~No
P~Persuade

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JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer

With their heads bent and posture perfect one afternoon last month, the students in Kate LaMonaca's third-grade class at the Indian Mills School in South Jersey focused intently on writing the alphabet in cursive on worksheets.

"They love it," said LaMonaca, who teaches at the Shamong school. "It's almost a rite of passage."

But in many districts, it is a skill that has largely fallen by the wayside, amid a tech era when most students use electronic devices and rarely use a pen or pencil to complete assignments. Many states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have eliminated instruction in cursive writing.

"I want good grammar. I want capitalization. I want periods. I could care less if it's cursive," said Suzanne Newman, a fifth-grade teacher at McCloskey Elementary in East Mount Airy. Students there are taught just enough cursive to sign legal documents.

Not enough time in the day. If you are a parent and want your kids to learn, go to the dollar store and get a workbook. There isn't anything to teach. Just trace and repeat. The bill is such a boomer bill.
- JaredKub (@Kubbiekub) December 5, 2019

Get the news you need to start your day

A growing number of states, however, are reconsidering the need for cursive instruction. At least 14 now mandate that students learn it, according to the website mycursive.com. New Jersey has proposed legislation that would require it. And for several years running, Philadelphia City Council members have questioned the absence of cursive instruction in city schools.

In New Jersey, Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, (D., Hudson) recently introduced a bill that, if approved, would require public schools as soon as September to teach cursive writing.

The state had removed it as a mandate in 2010. With no mandate, many school districts stopped teaching cursive. McKnight believes cursive instruction should be required because too many students today are unable to read cursive or even sign their own names.

"It's time that cursive writing comes back," McKnight said. "We need to teach our children that this is something that you're going to use."

The cursive debate heated up about a decade ago, when educators moved toward the Common Core, a set of national curriculum standards. Handwriting was identified as a skill only to be addressed in kindergarten and first grade.

I do! I briefly (15 min. a week) introduce letters & give practice homework sheets. I also make personal sheets with individual kid's names, so they can practice their signatures. Cursive has been proven to help kids with reading difficulties-especially those with dyslexia.
- anne nachman (@anne_nachman) December 7, 2019

Handwriting expert Steve Graham, an education professor at Arizona State University, said there is no appreciable difference in manuscript vs. cursive in terms of speed of production or legibility.

Virginia Berninger, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Washington, has another view. Her research shows that cursive instruction helps students with spelling and makes it easier for them to compose thoughts quickly - skills that can help them meet contemporary standards, Berninger said.

"We need to teach students to be hybrid writers, so they're competent in multiple modes - manuscript, cursive, and keyboarding. There's benefits for each one," said Berninger, adding, "We're bringing back handwriting."

Some districts, like Shamong in Burlington County, never stopped teaching cursive writing. Although students are not required to use it for their schoolwork and don't get graded, they get exposed to it, learning how to read and write cursive.

Once a week, LaMonaca drills her 19 students for 20 minutes in cursive writing. She demonstrates on a white board and then reviews their posture, pencil strokes, and penmanship and students practice in workbooks. Students learn printing in first and second grades.

Her classmate Kayla Frysztacki, 9, looks forward to learning cursive so she can teach a younger sister. Another student, Colin Flamisch, believes all students in the state need to learn it.

"A lot of times people ask for your signature," Colin, 9, said. "It would be unusual to print it."

At Lawnside School in Camden County, cursive instruction was reinstated in the curriculum about five years ago, said principal Ronn Johnson. Some assignments must be written in cursive, he said.

"We always felt it was important," Johnson said.

For a recent lesson, English teacher Kenneth Johnson gave tips to his seventh-grade class at Lawnside School, telling students to "hump" the letter h like a camel. He reviewed up and down curves, encouraging them to eventually develop a distinctive writing style.

"It doesn't look the way it will look when you practice more," Johnson, a 27-year educator, told the class. "You will get your own styles."

Parochial schools across the region have remained committed to teaching the art of handwriting and good penmanship, as a sign of a good education and etiquette for sending personal notes.

"They come into second grade and they see their name tags written out in cursive handwriting, and it's a big deal," said teacher Lori Carrozza, a 31-year educator.

At midmorning on a recent day in Room 123, Carrozza's students prepared to tackle lowercase Ks. They were excited and laser-focused: feet on the floor, backs against their chairs and one hand on top of the writing paper.

"Print is boring," said Liam Deveney, 9. "Cursive is cooler."

Tessa Giroux nodded. "Your pencil never goes off the paper with cursive," she marveled.

By April, the class should have mastered cursive, Carrozza said, and will spend the rest of their years at the school using cursive exclusively.

Maryann DeAngelo, Cardinal Foley's principal, has a soft spot for cursive, and it's not just because it was her favorite subject to teach when she was in the classroom.

"Cursive writing, manuscript, and keyboarding all develop different parts of the brain," DeAngelo said. "When we say we're educating the whole child, I think it's important to teach all three."

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Many Pa. and N.J. schools no longer teach cursive. Are students missing out on a useful tool?

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With their heads bent and posture perfect one afternoon last month, the students in Kate LaMonaca's third-grade class at the Indian Mills School in South Jersey focused intently on writing the alphabet in cursive on worksheets. "They love it," said LaMonaca, who teaches at the Shamong school. "It's almost a rite of passage."

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C~February 20,2017
R~Agrees
A~Bethany Mandel
A~no
P~Inform

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When Jack Lew was nominated to be Treasury secretary in 2013, President Barack Obama joked that as a condition of the appointment, Lew would have to learn to sign his name more legibly. The secretary's signature, after all, was going to appear on US currency.

Lew, a New Yorker, was a city public-school student. And now the school system that produced him is hoping to iron out that particular wrinkle for any future potential Treasury secretary: New York is bringing back cursive instruction.

Thanks to our education system, few Americans are learning cursive, and thus, are unable to legibly sign their own names. As the federal government has become more involved in the day-to-day workings of the American classroom, a focus on test prep has become teachers' main objective. That means useful skills that fall outside the testing pattern often are neglected.

Which is what makes a decision last week from the New York City Department of Education so refreshing. When federal education standards called Common Core were adopted by the city, penmanship classes were dropped. But the current instructional handbook includes a manual for teaching cursive, and according to NBC4, many schools have already begun to implement cursive instruction.

They should be cheered for it - even if they don't grasp just why it's so important.

In a statement last week, Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island assemblywoman who pushed for the change, said the reason to add cursive was so that students would "know how to write a signature of their own to identify themselves, and have the ability to sign a legal document, check or voter-registration form."

But this policy change is actually more beneficial for the students than school officials appear to realize. Learning how to write cursive isn't just useful for its own sake - as valuable as it is to be able to sign one's own name.

As the city Department of Education rightly pointed out, "evidence reveals an advantage for handwriting using pen and paper over keyboarding for students in grades 2 to 6 for amount written, rate of word writing, and number of ideas expressed."

In other words: Kids were better at processing information when doing so by handwriting as opposed to typing.

In addition, scientific research (and common sense) indicates learning how to write cursive helps the development of motor skills. Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. William Klemm explains, "The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument."

These benefits apply to writing more generally and cursive specifically, according to Klemm.

That's because in "cursive writing, compared to printing . . . the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less stereotypical and the visual-recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation."

Yes, kids could use a computer and type more legibly than they can write. But the end product is just as important as the lesson itself. Test prep and academic pressure are increasingly crowding out previously essential classes like music, art and physical education. Recess has been shortened considerably for children compared to their parents' generation, as has instruction in subjects not considered "core curriculum."

There's a larger point here: Cursive writing is far from an exception. Teachers and school administrators have learned both through studies and their own experience that, for example, the erosion of recess time has negative effects on student behavior and performance, never mind happiness. Activities tossed overboard for their perceived frivolity turned out to have a point.

Reverting to older methods of education isn't the "hipsterization" of the classroom. Instead, it's educators merely casting off prior poorly researched and executed trends in education.

The New York City Department of Education might have taken only a small step in that reversion with its decision to restart cursive instruction, but parents should cheer it nonetheless. Perhaps it's the beginning of a curriculum counterrevolution that will restore a sense of balance to children's education.

And if not, well - at least future Treasury secretaries from New York will be able to sign our currency with pride.
Bethany Mandel, a stay-at-home mom, is a senior contributor to The Federalist.

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Why we should teach cursive writing to all kids

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When Jack Lew was nominated to be Treasury secretary in 2013, President Barack Obama joked that as a condition of the appointment, Lew would have to learn to sign his name more legibly. The secretary's signature, after all, was going to appear on US currency. Lew, a New Yorker, was a city public-school student.

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