Cursive writing--an essential!

A friend of mine told me that she had had lunch with a friend of hers--an archivist. The archivist mentioned how disappointed she was with her new intern. "What are your concerns?" my friend asked. "She can't read," the archivist stated. "She's a junior in college. How it it possible that she can't read?" my friend questioned. "It's not that she can't read at all," the archivist explained, "but she can't read cursive writing, a critical skill when working with historical documents."

This story makes me wonder if the reading and writing of cursive writing will one day be like knowing a foreign language!

In 2010, Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) aimed to standardize math and language arts requirements across the United States. Apparently, the instruction of cursive writing had been declining for years, and it seems that the CCSSI's omitting any mention of cursive writing in their curriculum pretty much rang the death knell for the teaching of it in our nation-wide elementary schools.

Yes, "correct" cursive writing is something that is difficult to test for!

As far as educational philosophy is concerned, I am an essentialist. I believe that certain things are essential to a "proper" education. Having been a high school English teacher, there are certain authors and literary works that I think are essential--but that's a post for another day!--there are certain speaking and writing skills that I believe are essential to a quality education--another post for another day.

I've also come to believe that cursive writing is essential for a complete education.  An article that outlines more detailed scientific information about the value of learning script or cursive writing can be found in a recent Psychology Today magazine, entitled "What Learning Cursive Does for the Brain."

Before retirement, I had begun to notice that some of my students printed everything. Now I wonder if they simply didn't know how to write cursively. Perhaps their elementary school teacher had skipped that particular skill, just as my daughter's elementary teacher omitted teaching her students the capital cities of the states!

Just because much of our "speaking" and writing is done with a keyboard doesn't mean that we won't need to use our fingers and hands to write on occasion. But there's something even more important to cursive writing than this need.

The same friend who told the above story about the archivist considers learning cursive writing to be a "rite of passage" into adulthood, like using an ink pen. She further tells me that practicing her penmanship led to her love of writing, "As I moved my fountain pen across the lined paper, my writing became my voice. I wanted to read more to gain the knowledge to write more. My vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure all improved [with cursive writing]."

In hearing about this movement toward not teaching cursive writing, I thought about personality development and how my cursive writing has changed/matured over the years with my personality. It's fun to look back and see how you used to write in grade school, high school, college, early adulthood, etc. Cursive writing generally show your personality development.

Remember when you used to get a card or letter through snail mail, you could tell from the handwriting on the envelop who had sent it. As a teacher, if a name on a paper was missing, I could usually tell by their handwriting whose paper it was. Handwritten notes are usually more appreciated than emailed ones.

How I cherish today some handwritten recipes from my mother! When I tenderly touch her faded writing, it is as if I am touching her.

Also remember how handwriting analyzers are able to tell us about some of our personality traits from our handwriting. Someone's handwriting is their "signature. A part of them that is unique," my friend states. So if a person doesn't learn cursive writing, might that somehow change her/his personality development? His/her uniqueness? If we all write alike--from a computer keyboard--won't we be more like little automatons who do not have our own individual thoughts? (perhaps more Big Brother mind control--re-read the George Orwell novel 1984)

I, for one,  believe that we would. That's why I think that the teaching. learning, and practice (though I'm sure that it takes time and patience) of cursive writing is paramount to a quality education and to a person's personality development and uniqueness.

Let's bring back this essential skill--cursive writing!

An interesting sidenote: Since I was raised in the 50s, I guess that I learned cursive writing in third or fourth grade. When I began seventh grade in a new school, DuPont Junior High School, the English teacher there--a really old gray-headed lady (probably she was in her late 40s!)--told us students that most of our handwriting had become adulterated. She told us that in addition to the usual seventh grade English lessons she was going to teach us cursive writing from scratch! And so we all began again to learn our letters and to practice and practice. By then I had begun to write back handed like my mother--though neither of us was left handed--and it wasn't pretty. So I was taught once again to slant by letters to the right. At the time with my budding teenness, I resented having to learn cursive writing again, but of course, like many good lessons in life, it turned out to be a great value for me.