# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- Nov. 6, 2012. Updated- August 2018
R- Agrees that cursive should be taught in schools
A- Room 241 Team at Concordia University (.edu)
A- No spelling/grammar errors
P- Informs how beneficial cursive is

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- Nov. 6, 2017 Updated - n/a
R- Agrees with fact of letting cursive be taught
A- Matt Grant (.com)
A- No spelling/grammar errors
P- Informs reader how cursive can impact your life

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Any school child knows the three "Rs": reading, writing, and arithmetic. It seems a given that these three skills will always form the backbone of a child's educational development. Yet for students who graduated from elementary school before 2010, visiting a modern-day classroom may contain some noticeable differences.

In particular, one might notice the absence of cursive, the style of penmanship marked by conjoined letters. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCS), a set of benchmarks in math and English designed for kindergarten through twelfth grade, has set off a debate over handwriting and cursive and when-or even if-such skills should still be taught.

"The Common Core State Standards were developed through a state-led effort in 2009 and 2010 and published in June 2010," says Olympia Meola, press secretary for the Council of Chief State School Officers, an organization that co-sponsored the standards.

"Since then, states have voluntarily chosen to adopt the Common Core, or chosen to develop other standards that prepare students for college and careers. There is not a standard specific to cursive writing in the Common Core; instead, these standards give schools and teachers the flexibility to teach cursive writing in the classroom. States also have the flexibility to adopt standards above and beyond the Common Core State Standards."

To date, 42 of the 50 U.S. states have adopted the CCS, but only 14 have passed laws requiring cursive proficiency. Everyone from local, state, and federal officials to educators, psychologists, and scientists are sharply divided on the issue. Cursive's defenders say it's a valuable skill and can aid in word proficiency; its detractors call it a waste of time and want more relevant skill building, like keyboarding.

Steve Graham, Warner professor at Arizona State University's School of Education, says that the benefits of handwriting can be boiled down to a few essential elements. "There's different styles of handwriting: there's manuscript, which is a stick and ball; there's cursive, which has joined letters; and there's italics," he says.

"There's other forms as well, but the two that have dominated this country are manuscript and cursive." Graham says that in looking at these two forms of script and considering their benefits, it's helpful to think in terms of reader and writer effects.

There's evidence that suggests if your handwriting is less legible, then people form negative opinions about what you're saying.

"By reader effects, what you're really talking about in terms of handwriting ... is if it's hard to read what's written because the handwriting is not legible or less legible, then that influences the reader. And second, there's evidence that suggests if your handwriting is less legible, then people form negative opinions about what you're saying."

Knowing this, Graham says, the question becomes which is more legible: cursive or manuscript? "If you ask a person on the street, usually they'll say manuscript," he says. "But the reality is that there's not much real difference in terms of legibility, if you have an equal amount of practice in both."

In terms of writer effects, Graham says the thing to look at is automaticity. "The more automatic you are, usually the more fluent you are," he says. "If you're writing something by hand or you're typing it, and your ideas are coming really fast but you're not such a good typist or you're not really quick with handwriting, then ideas might slip away out of your working memory as you're trying to write them down."

Graham points out this is something that happens to all writers, no matter how efficient they are. But it highlights the fact that someone's dexterity with handwriting can interfere with other processes, like content generation.

Do we need to teach two forms of handwriting, or should we just teach one?

"So the question [now] is, which is faster: cursive, or manuscript?" Graham says. "If you ask the typical person on the street, the answer you'll get is, 'cursive's faster.' But when you actually look at the data, as long as there's an equal amount of practice, then there's not much difference. You might get a little edge for cursive for the speed issue, and for the legibility issue, you get a little bit of an edge for manuscript. ...So, the question becomes: Do we need to teach two forms of handwriting, or should we just teach one? My opinion on this, given that's such a crowded curriculum, is we should teach one."

Graham's assertion is that people are overreacting over the loss of cursive. "I think too much has been made of this issue," he says.

In Arizona, you have state legislators passing a law that you have to teach cursive handwriting.

"In Arizona, you have state legislators passing a law that you have to teach cursive handwriting. Come on, give me a break-they don't have anything better to do, that they need to be legislating what teachers teach in terms of ... handwriting? I think this is one of these things [where] we assume we're losing something, and I'm not exactly sure what we're losing by teaching one versus teaching two, as long as we teach one well."

Yet Virginia Berninger, an experimental and licensed clinical psychologist and professor emerita at the University of Washington, says that the loss of cursive puts students at a real disadvantage, particularly those with learning disabilities. Berninger has been involved in a number of studies that she says show the unique benefits of cursive on understanding letter formation.

For instance, a longitudinal study showed that when comparing manuscript, cursive, and keyboarding from students from grades four to seven, "It was the cursive that was uniquely contributing to [children's] spelling and to their composing quality," she says.

"We think that's because with cursive, there are connecting strokes that link the letters, and we think that helps with creating those word units representing what you need for spelling." Since cursive was originally invented to speed up writing, being able to write faster may have given students a composing advantage.

Berninger goes on to say that for students with learning disabilities in reading and writing, the physical act of handwriting is often beneficial. "What we've learned in our research in the last six years, is that even if a learning disability involves reading, like pronouncing words or reading comprehension, it still has writing problems associated with it," she says.

This correlation between reading and writing in learning disabled children has largely been ignored. "Dyslexia is not just a reading disability," she says. "In addition to word reading, the more persistent problems ... are spelling problems. That can affect [a child's] composing."

Berninger's recommendation then, contrary to Graham's, is that children should be taught to be hybrid writers. "You teach manuscript first for two years, and then you teach them the cursive," she says.

In due time, cursive will help with spelling and composing.

Teaching manuscript alone has its own benefits. "Teaching printing, we found in several studies, transfers to improving your word reading. We think because the production of the letters enhances perception of the letters. So that helps with reading, and in due time, cursive will help with spelling and composing."

Berninger says it doesn't even take that much to teach a student good handwriting. "People say, 'With everything else we have to do, how can we possibly find time to teach handwriting?' Well actually, it only takes five or 10 minutes a day, or even three times a week, and you really can accomplish a lot," she says.

In other fields, like medicine and law, you do have members of the community that more actively participate in making the standards. For whatever reason, we have not accorded that privilege to the teachers.

Part of the issue for Berninger is that the Common Core standards are not written by actual educators. "We have people who are legislators, government regulars, educational policy people ... they're the ones that are writing these standards," she says.

"Rarely if ever have they been classroom teachers, actually working with kids. We do think this is a critical issue-we're not getting enough of the voice of the classroom teacher into making these standards and policies. In other fields, like medicine and law, you do have members of the community that more actively participate in making the standards. For whatever reason, we have not accorded that privilege to the teachers."

One area in which Graham and Berninger agree is that there needs to be more keyboarding taught in the classroom. "It's a changing world in terms of how we compose," Graham says. "If you're not at school, most composing isn't done by hand now, it's done digitally, or by spoken word when you speak into your phone."

But Berninger says that in her research, she found that students don't usually start to see benefits from keyboarding until they get to seventh grade.

This idea that we just need to use the technology, we don't need our 'old fashioned' tools, it's a mindset that we need to be a bit more cautious about in general.

She believes this might be because handwriting uses only one hand, but keyboarding uses both. Developmentally, right brain/left brain myelination doesn't mature until early adolescence. It could also be due to the fact that keyboarding skills are neglected in the classroom. "Schools in general are not teaching kids to use the computers, the keyboarding part," she says. "And so it may just be there hasn't been as much instruction."

Still, Berninger doesn't believe that typing should ever replace handwriting. "Every problem we're going to solve, we're going to create technology for it," she says. "So this idea that we just need to use the technology, we don't need our 'old fashioned' tools, it's a mindset that we need to be a bit more cautious about in general. That's led to the dismissal of the importance of handwriting."

But Graham says the real problem is a myopic focus on handwriting as just one of many skills students need to be good writers. He says that out of 20 or so interviews he does a year on the subject of writing, eight out of 10 of those focus on handwriting alone. Only two are about writing more generally.

"That's an odd balance, to be honest," he says. "Handwriting is one of many skills that one needs to master to become a skilled writer. Students don't write very well, and we don't do a very good job of teaching it in schools. But we seem to be maniacally focused on handwriting." He adds, "I don't want to take away anything from handwriting, but it seems out of balance."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Should Cursive Still Be Taught In Schools?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Any school child knows the three "Rs": reading, writing, and arithmetic. It seems a given that these three skills will always form the backbone of a child's educational development. Yet for students who graduated from elementary school before 2010, visiting a modern-day classroom may contain some noticeable differences.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- Jan. 6, 2018 Updated- n/a
R- Agrees with claim
A- Iris Hatfield (.com)
A- No spelling/grammar errors
P- The article teaches the numerous benefits of cursive writing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Developing an attractive, legible cursive handwriting style certainly has great aesthetic value, but it also has numerous mental, physical, social, and practical benefits. Here are the Top 10 reasons to learn cursive!

1. Improved neural connections. Cursive handwriting stimulates the brain in ways that typing cannot. It improves the dynamic interplay of the left and right cerebral hemispheres, helps build neural pathways, and increases mental effectiveness. According to Virginia Berninge r, a researcher and professor at the University of Washington, "Pictures of brain activity have illustrated that sequential finger movements used in handwriting activated massive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory. Handwriting differs from typing because it requires executing sequential finger strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding only involves touching a key."

2. Improved ability to read cursive. When individuals cannot read cursive, they are cursively illiterate in their own language. The ability to read cursive is required in many settings.

3. Increased writing speed. The connectivity of a simple cursive style is faster to write than the stop and-start strokes of printing. Speed has been shown to increase attention span during writing. This increases continuity and fluidity in writing, which in turn encourages greater amounts of writing.

4. Improved fine motor skills. "Cursive handwriting naturally develops sensory skills. Through repetition the children begin to understand how much force needs to be applied to the pencil and paper, the positioning of the pencil to paper at the correct angle, and motor planning to form each letter in fluid motion from left to right. This physical and spatial awareness allows them to write, but more importantly, builds the neural foundation of sensory skills needed for a myriad of everyday tasks such as buttoning, fastening, tying shoes, picking up objects, copying words from blackboards, and most importantly, reading." ( Cutting Cursive, The Real Cost. Candace Meyer, CEO, Minds-in-Motion, Inc.)

5. Increased retention. The act of taking notes by hand instead of on a computer encourages a student to process the content and reframe it, which leads to better understanding and retention. Studies indicate that college students remembered information better one week later when they transcribed a paragraph in cursive than when they printed it or used a keyboard.

6. Ease of learning. Printing is more difficult than cursive due to the frequent stop-and-start motion when forming letters. In addition, some printed letters look similar and are easily reversed, like the b and d, which is often confusing to children. Cursive is of particular value to children with learning challenges such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and difficulties with attention.

7. Improved legibility and spelling ability. Cursive requires children to write from left to right so that the letters will join in proper sequence and with proper spacing, making their writing easier to read. It also aids with spelling through muscle memory, as the hand acquires memory of spelling patterns through fluid movements that are used repeatedly. This is the same phenomenon that occurs when pianists learn patterns of hand movements through continued repetition.

8. Increased self-discipline. Cursive handwriting is complex, and is inherently associated with the development of fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Learning cursive prompts children to also develop self-discipline, which is a useful skill in all areas of life.

9. Higher quality signature. Cursive handwriting will improve the attractiveness, legibility, and fluidity of one's signature.

10. Increased self-respect. The ability to master the skill of writing clearly and fluidly improves the students' confidence to communicate freely with the written word. Handwriting is a vital life skill.

Top 10 Reasons to Learn Cursive by Iris Hatfield, author of New American Cursive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Top 10 Reasons to Learn Cursive - Memoria Press

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Developing an attractive, legible cursive handwriting style certainly has great aesthetic value, but it also has numerous mental, physical, social, and practical benefits. Here are the Top 10 reasons to learn cursive! 1. Improved neural connections. Cursive handwriting stimulates the brain in ways that typing cannot.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- July 22, 2013 Updated- n/a
R-Agrees a little bit but mainly disagrees
A- Cindy Long (.org)
A- No spelling/grammar errors
P- Informs why its not as necessary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Just like summertime temperatures, the cursive debate is heating up - especially now that the newly established Common Core standards don't include the curly, looped handwriting style children have learned in penmanship classes for generations.

In response, some state legislatures are seeking to make it compulsory, like North Carolina where the senate passed a bill to make cursive a requirement in public schools. Supporters of the "Back to Basics" legislation, which passed 37-8 and also requires North Carolina students to memorize multiplication tables, said that cursive is important to know even in the age of keyboards and digital devices.

"[Students] have the right to know the same types of things we knew when we were coming along," Republican Sen. Austin Allran, the bill's sponsor, told the Charlotte Observer.

Those who argue for cursive insist that it teaches fine motor skills, is faster and more efficient than printed handwriting, and that it enhances the creative process and has other cognitive benefits. In addition, many historical documents will be illegible if people can't read in cursive.

"Cursive writing is a long-held cultural tradition in this country and should continue to be taught; not just for the sake of tradition, but also to preserve the history of our nation," Jimmy Bryant, director of archives and special collections at the University of Central Arkansas, told The New York Times.

Opponents say it's time to let cursive be written into the pages of history.

"As we have done with the abacus and the slide rule, it is time to retire the teaching of cursive. The writing is on the wall," Morgan Polikoff, an assistant education professor at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, argued in a New York Times opinion piece.

While the topic is polarizing, there are some people who fall into the middle, like Kate Gladstone, a handwriting expert and educator quoted on the topic of handwriting in publications as diverse as The New York Times to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Gladstone believes that cursive should be taught in our schools - but only to be read, not written.

"Reading cursive can be taught in just 30 to 60 minutes - even to five- or six-year-olds, once they read ordinary print," Gladstone says. "Writing cursive, however, takes much, much more time and effort to master, even sketchily."

Should educators take the time to teach children how to first draw and eventually to write these elaborate letters when there is so much more substantive curriculum? Gladstone says no because it's not a worthwhile return on the investment of time and energy.

What's more, most adults abandon cursive writing for a hybrid of mostly print letters joined occasionally in a cursive style. In 2012, handwriting teachers were surveyed at a conference hosted by Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of cursive textbooks. Only 37 percent wrote in cursive; another 8 percent printed. The majority, 55 percent, wrote a hybrid: some elements resembling print-writing, others resembling cursive.

"When even most handwriting teachers give up cursive, why would anyone else continue to exalt it?" Gladstone asks.

Handwriting matters, she says, and offers fine motor skills and cognitive benefits whether in cursive or not. But she insists that children should be taught efficient handwriting, which research shows is most legible and efficient when it combines print, or manuscript, and cursive letters.

Cursive isn't required for legal documents, either. In state and federal law, Gladtone says, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over any other kind.

So is the writing on the wall for cursive? Neatoday.org asked its Facebook fans - K-12 educators from all over the country. We got an overwhelming response - almost 800 comments. The verdict? Keep cursive writing in schools. Here's what some of our fans had to say:

Get the high stakes testing out of elementary schools, and we'll have time to teach cursive writing again!

The Constitution of the United States is written in cursive. Think about that. I make my kids at least learn to read cursive.

Not everyone has a computer and printer.

Absolutely teach cursive. Teach everything possible, exercise those brains, grow neurons, every little bit of knowledge helps us THINK!

Handwriting is much more personal and I still prefer it on cards and in mailed letters. I use it for people I really care about on special occasions and other appropriate times.That being said, most of my day-to-day communication, including this post, is on a laptop.

For most of us, cursive is faster than printing. Speed is often the difference between getting the facts down correctly during note-taking, and trying to figure out or remember what the first part of the note referred to. Since note-taking remains part of the academic experience, and notes are often shared/compared, it's nice to have consistency for readability-especially for one's self.

I'm glad I learned cursive and know how to teach it. It is much faster for taking notes in a class and you can write really classy thank you notes. Manuscript is important, too, for clarity in filling out forms. Learn both and don't always rely on a keyboard.

Let us know what you think in the comments below or visit facebook.com/neatoday.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Does Cursive Need to Be Taught in the Digital Age? - NEA Today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just like summertime temperatures, the cursive debate is heating up - especially now that the newly established Common Core standards don't include the curly, looped handwriting style children have learned in penmanship classes for generations. In response, some state legislatures are seeking to make it compulsory, like North Carolina where the senate passed a bill to make cursive a requirement in public schools.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- May 30, 2019 Updated- n/a
R- Agrees with claim
A- Elizabeth Mulvahill/ weareteachers
A- No spelling/grammar errors
P- Informs readers about why cursive should be required

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
According to the 41 states no longer require handwriting instruction. That's not surprising, since the Common Core has shifted the focus to skills which support technology, like keyboarding instruction. But the benefits of handwriting, and cursive in particular, have long been documented. In addition to the effects on brain development, handwriting helps students build fine motor skills and dexterity, and leads to greater engagement and retention. In addition, research shows that cursive writing is beneficial for students with learning disabilities.

Here are a few ways cursive instruction benefits students.

Brain development

According to a study conducted by the University of Washington, learning to print, write in cursive, and type on a keyboard all contribute to brain development in students. But instruction in cursive writing in particular seems to produce the greatest neurological effects.

The key difference is that cursive writing stimulates brain synapses and the synchronicity between both sides of the brain, unlike printing or typing. William Klemm , senior professor of neuroscience at Texas A&M University, states, "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.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

Handwriting expert Jeanette Farmer provides a strong argument for setting aside time for cursive instruction. "Handwriting has a physiological/psychological link in the brain," she states. "This link is so strong that nothing else done in the classroom can begin to compare with the powerful impact that repetitively manipulating the thumb and fingers over time has on the young brain."

Mental engagement

Handwriting contributes to greater retention and deeper learning in students. It only makes sense that students spend more time processing, and have a greater ability to remember, things they create by hand.

Learning how to write in cursive matters because it demands focused attention. First a child has to think about the structure of each letter, then figure out how to mechanically reproduce it. Repeating this active process over and over helps build a foundation of literacy learning.

This holds true for older students as well. According to researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer , "Students who take notes on a laptop tend to transcribe lectures verbatim, while students who hand-write notes process information and reframe it in their own words, reinforcing learning."

Kinesthetic benefits

When students learn to write in cursive, they must coordinate fine motor skills with visual and tactile processing abilities. The physical act of touching pen to paper builds muscle memory that is foundational for learning. Writing in cursive requires knowledge of not just letter formation, but the curves and connections as well. This requires hand-eye coordination-a skill that is integral to learning to play a musical instrument, participate in sports, use tools, and even master a computer keyboard.

Benefits for students with learning disabilities

A 2012 review suggests that cursive may be particularly effective for individuals with neurological disorders such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. Dyslexia is caused by a disconnect between the auditory and language centers of the brain. As stated above, writing in cursive has the effect on the brain of joining together these two centers. In addition, cursive writing, with its connected letters and fluid motion, has been shown to help students with dysgraphia, which is characterized by motor control difficulties in writing.

We all know teachers only have so many hours in the day, and standards dictate other priorities. But the overwhelming evidence shows that cursive instruction has enormous benefits for our students. Setting aside a few minutes each week to teach cursive writing is something we need to invest in.
Do you make time for cursive instruction in your classroom? Come share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE! group on Facebook. Also, check out What Teachers Need to Know About Dysgraphia and 10 Things About Dyslexia Teachers Need to Know.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
All posts by Elizabeth Mulvahill, B.A. Liberal Arts, Certified Teacher

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Research Shows Huge Benefits to Learning Cursive, But Most States Don't Require It

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to the USA Today, 41 states no longer require teaching handwriting. But there are big benefits to cursive instruction. See what they are.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- May 6, 2014 Updated- n/a
R- Agrees with claim
A- pbs News Hour (pbs.org)
A- n/a
P- Teaches the benefits of cursive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Starting in the 1970s, and under the recent implementation of the Common Core, a former pillar of elementary education has been largely forgotten. But there's a feeling that learning cursive still has value, even in the age of typing and texting. The NewsHour's April Brown reports from North Carolina, one of a handful of states that's moved to make learning the formal, curlicue letters mandatory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why some schools still insist on lessons in elegant cursive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Starting in the 1970s, and under the recent implementation of the Common Core, a former pillar of elementary education has been largely forgotten. But there's a feeling that learning cursive still has value, even in the age of typing and texting.

# data[].attributes.body
C- Posted- Nov. 20, 2018 Updated- n/a
R- Agrees with claim
A- Stephanie Leydon - WGBH News
A- n/a
P- Informs about the importance you would need it for

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In Holly Martin's third-grade class at Saint Columbkille in Brighton, the old-fashioned chalkboard has been replaced with an electronic screen. But Martin uses the screen to teach her students a concept older than the one-room school house: how to write in cursive.

"Two humps, like a camel," she says, as she forms a lowercase "n" and then, echoing a point made by a student, added, "some camels have one hump."

A tendency toward precision helps when writing cursive. These kids practice daily, and at least once a week Martin does a deep dive in penmanship.

"Some of the kids wonder why we're learning it," she said.

Unlike the generation of kids who grew up staring at chalkboards, they're growing up in a time when most people tap out their thoughts on a keyboard.

Yet there is among students, like eight-year-old Jabez Lubega, an appreciation for it.

"I think it's more fancy," he said. "Like, if you were writing a book and you wanted to use cursive, it would look more fancy."

Cursive, said Martin, offers creativity and an opportunity for self-expression. It's a skill she said her students will use all their lives, from writing letters to reading old documents to signing their names.

The importance of a legible and consistent signature was brought into sharp relief in the aftermath of the midterm elections. Thousands of ballots were discarded in Florida because election workers were unable to match mail-in ballot signatures to the ones on file.

"I would say it's important to sign your own name," said Martin, "and even the students in my class know that they need to know how to write their own name and write it in a signature, because you're going to use that. It's part of your identity."

Teaching cursive has long been a hallmark of Catholic schools, like Saint Columbkille, but until about 20 years ago it was also standard practice in Massachusetts public schools. Modern state education frameworks call only for students to be able to write legibly in print or cursive and to be able to sign their name. Given the demands of a 21 st century education, many schools have largely cut back on teaching cursive. Some have cut it out of the curriculum entirely.

"We are definitely going against the tide," said Saint Columbkille Head of School William Gartside. He grew up going to Catholic school, where he said he spent countless hours learning cursive. "My writing is not so good," he admitted, though he believes learning cursive writing has value.

"It trains the students to have a mind that's really attentive," he said. "It slows them down, it makes them more reflective."

Still, he said it's getting increasingly difficult to keep cursive in the curriculum.

"The tide's washing over the wall," he said. "In the 21 st century, you absolutely have to spend more attention [to] technology and also making sure students have art and physical education."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In Holly Martin's third-grade class at Saint Columbkille in Brighton, the old-fashioned chalkboard has been replaced with an electronic screen. But Martin uses the screen to teach her students a concept older than the one-room school house: how to write in cursive.

# data[].attributes.body
C- n/a
R- n/a
A- n/a
A- n/a
P- n/a

# data[].attributes.body
C- n/a
R- n/a
A- n/a
A- n/a
P- n/a

# data[].attributes.body
C- n/a
R- n/a
A- n/a
A- n/a
P- n/a

# data[].attributes.body
C- n/a
R- n/a
A- n/a
A- n/a
P- n/a

# data[].attributes.body
C- n/a
R- n/a
A- n/a
A- n/a
P- n/a