Teaching Cursive

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Teaching Cursive

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In the age of computers, the teaching a use of cursive in schools has become something of a controversy. The debate has heated up in recent months. In the March 2004 issue of American Teacher, David Rufo and Janie Cravens commented on the question “Is teaching cursive a waste of time?” They answered both yes and no and triggered a debate among parents. Here are a few of the responses:

I totally agree with all of Ms. Cravens’ reasons for continuing to teach cursive. As an elementary teacher, I find it very frustrating that my own daughter has never been required to use cursive since she finished fourth grade to help keep her skills alive.

Unlike Mr. Rufo, I do not believe that cursive writing has run its course. Printing or using a computer is just not appropriate for letters of condolence or personal thank-you notes. And how about the warm feeling we get when we receive a greeting card, postcard or letter that someone has taken the time to handwrite to us?

As my daughter approaches college, her preferred method of communication is likely to be instant messages. Hopefully, though, she will remember the cursive lessons of long ago taught by her wonderful third-grade teacher whenever personal messages need to be handwritten.

—Jean Levitt
Rochester, NY

As a parent residing in a school district that has chosen to teach cursive in kindergarten, I am disappointed by Ms. Cravens’ reasons for continuing it. I applaud Mr. Rufo for noting that the purpose of writing is to communicate, and that it should be done in the easiest and most effective way. As a teacher, this is my primary concern.

How can we, in this age of technology and increasing curriculum demands, be concerned with cursive writing? In my six years in a middle school resource room, I can count on one hand the number of students who have used
cursive as a means of communicating.

—Lisa Sargent
Ogdensburg, NY

I taught cursive writing to third-graders for 27 of my 33 years of teaching. Nothing was more pleasing or rewarding than a letter I recently received. It was written on notebook paper in small, but readable cursive. It was from a former student, a reluctant learner who is now a staff sergeant serving in Iraq. Guess there’s a shortage of keyboard time over there. How lucky she had her pencil!

—Barbra Freeman
Greer, SC

I cannot believe David Rufo’s “loopy” attitude toward cursive writing. He, as an artist, should understand the need for
fine motor skills. Cursive writing goes far beyond putting words on paper. It is about the ability to use our hands in
a controlled, decisive manner. Technology can never fully eliminate the need to communicate with pen or pencil.

—Marlene Reineke
St. Paul, M

It is true that in this day and age, when all text is presented in print form and children are taught to use a keyboard from preschool on, there is very little use for cursive handwriting. Yes, it is attractive, but that is not a valid reason to spend hours teaching it year after year.
We must commit ourselves to teaching life skills, and I fail to see where cursive writing is a life skill.

I don’t see how learning to write in cursive increases students’ ability to listen and follow directions. Where is
the research that supports it? Students with small-motor difficulties and those with learning disabilities are better able to communicate through writing when they are not forced to write in cursive.

—Susan McElveen
Clearwater, FL

Here’s what some seventh graders had to say:

I agree with the point that cursive writing is useless. With all the technology that is being developed, cursive writing is becoming obsolete. Besides, wouldn’t teachers rather get a neatly typed paper than a messy, cursive paper they can hardly read? Can you imagine a messy typed paper?

—Sam Senter

I think that teaching cursive writing is not a waste of time. If you think about it, you use cursive almost every day to sign your signature. Whether it is on checks, credit cards or at the end of typed letters, your name in cursive is a way to authenticate documents. If you hadn’t learned cursive as a child, how would you sign your signature? If we signed our names with print it would be much easier to forge people’s names.

—Katherine Filippo

I think that cursive is a waste of time. Kids could be working on more important subjects like math or language arts. Some kids need to spend extra time on these subjects because these subjects can sometimes be the hardest subjects to understand. So when teachers are teaching kids cursive, that is time teachers are taking away from kids to learn multiplication or when to use a semicolon in a sentence.

—Steven Boswell

In the modern working world, the request for a written item to be in cursive is about as common as the request for people who can write in ancient Greek! If the student plans to have a future career in the fields of science or engineering, that student is actually discouraged from using cursive due to its illegibility.

—Kevin Simondsen

I agree with Janie Cravens about keeping cursive writing in our schools. I am in seventh grade and I remember when I was in second grade learning cursive and wondering when I would ever need it. After years of practice I have become much better at writing in cursive, so much better that it is even faster for me now to write in cursive than in print. I need cursive for my signature, and most people write handwritten letters in cursive so I would need to know how to read it.

—Lauren Ceckowski

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