The Decline of Cursive Handwriting

Blame it on the keyboard, but beautiful penmanship may be a thing of the past.

A few years ago I was shocked to learn cursive writing was no longer taught in the elementary schools in my area. I couldn’t believe it! ‘Printed’ letters were acceptable for any type of writing, essay, report or letter turned into the teacher as classwork.

Where was the flowing script I had practiced so hard to learn as a child? I remembered broken pencil points, smudges and erasures that caused holes in my paper. And we had to practice, practice, and practice. Could it be this frustration was no longer considered necessary?

Cursive writing, as it’s commonly called in the United States, was developed for speed and to accommodate the use of quill pens. Since quills are easily broken and spatter ink, the longer the nib was kept on the paper the better. It made sense for neater writing. Cursive demanded continual placement of the pen point on the paper when forming letters. Most of the letters within a word were joined, although not all.

And of course, cursive was used in business correspondence. It is interesting to note that in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson joined most of his letters. However, it was professionally copied within a few days by Timothy Matlack, who joined all the letters. And Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address in a flowing cursive style we are still able to read today.

But with the development of typewriters and computers, the need for perfect handwriting lessened. Typed notes, invitations, and letters became acceptable for all occasions.

Until the 1960s cursive was usually taught to second and third graders. It demanded concentration and a steady grasp of the pencil. There were timed tests, penmanship competitions and pride in cursive perfection.

Many elementary schools now offer cursive writing as an elective or not at all. This is such a surprise to me. I often practiced, working on cursive capital letters and fine tuning my lower case letters, especially since I was once a teacher.

There are benefits, of course, to ‘printed’ letters. Once you learn to write, you don’t need to learn a different style of writing. It makes more time for academics in the school day, since a second form of writing is not taught. And ‘printed’ letters resemble keyboard letters, so it’s an easy transition from writing on a sheet of paper to typing for the computer screen.

Children today may be not exposed to cursive writing, but in the grand scheme of things, they’ll never miss it. There is so much else to learn in elementary school.


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