Does Cursive Have a Place in the Modern Classroom?

A century ago penmanship was an essential skill both in the world of business and in everyday practical concerns. Today the world is a different place. Practically speaking cursive and legible handwriting are obsolete, technological competence and keyboard proficiency are now dominate. The personal computer has radically redefined how people communicate through the written word.

Cursive has been swept into the dusty corners of the educational system as other concerns dominate class time. The majority of U.S. schools still have cursive in the curriculum, however less time is being allotted to its instruction. A majority of school districts only teach cursive in the third grade, in the near past it lasted into the sixth. Three states have even erased it completely as a requirement: Indiana and Hawaii first made the decision, effective fall of this year, followed not long after by Illinois .

The effects on students education with the decline of cursive and handwriting instruction, whether it’s simply the deconstruction of an outdated system or the loss of an aesthetic form that has untold improvements for the developing brain, cannot be fully realized yet but there are those on both sides of the fence.

Katie Webley of Times News Feed likens the ability to write in cursive to that of churning butter or “how to hitch a horse to a wagon-” they are skills of no use today, and serve only as a nostalgic ability to imitate the past. Forcing female students to learn sewing and needlework today would be a ridiculous waste of valuable teaching time even though, like cursive, a century ago it was considered an essential skill.

Students in today’s world would be lost if they were sent into the job market with beautiful handwriting and absolutely no idea how to use a computer or type. There will always be a limited amount of time available in a day for children to attend school, but as the world changes different necessities arise that must be dealt with and taught. Obviously, to make room for the new the old must be cut, and for efficiencies sake the skills being least used practically in the world are those that are dropped. In this sense the gradual undoing of cursive instruction is one of ensuring the content students are being taught as the most relevent, and its continuation is held onto only out of the sentimentality of older generations that received and used the instruction in decades past.

Others do not see it this way. The emphasis more and more on processes, efficiency and practicality over creativity, style and art do not improve the education of the student but instead take a fundamental aspect of it and strip it to bare bones. Professor Christen of the University of Portland in an interview with the New York Times said of the loss of handwriting ability in students: “[…] I’m mourning the beauty, the aesthetics.” Cursive improves motor skills, showing that it has some impact on the brain and those in favor of keeping cursive alive and thriving fear what effects this will have on learning and development. Penmanship is an art; a study by the Arts Education Partnership shows how arts education can have a more significant impact on a students ability to grasp and advance in the fundamentals than focusing exclusively on academics.

It’s impossible to ignore the necessities of an ever evolving society and its effects on what need to be taught in schools. To ignore the fact that e-mail and text messaging has almost completely replaced the written letter is to close ones eyes to the reality of the modern world and the direction it’s headed. The educational system must stay fluid in order to stay relevant. Keeping that in mind, understanding that how we learn, if not what we need to learn, remains essentially unchanged. Maintaining a dutiful handle on so-called ‘unpractical’ skills may make up for the wedge of time they require by advancing students more quickly.

Sources

Downs, Megan. “Schools debate: Is cursive writing worth teaching?” USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-23-cursive-handwriting_N.htm

Loughlin, Sue. “Archaic Method? Cursive writing no longer has to be taught.” TribStar. http://tribstar.com/news/x1435410216/Archaic-Method-Cursive-writing-no-longer-has-to-be-taught

Anonymous. “Hawaii No Longer Requires Teaching Cursive in Schools.” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/hawaii-no-longer-requires_n_915402.html

Coulter, Phyllis. “Cursive thing of the past at many Illinois schools.” Pantagraph. http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/education/article_10a286ae-bbed-11e0-a71e-001cc4c03286.html

Webley, Kayla. “Typing Beats Scribbling: Indiana Schools Can Stop Teaching Cursive.” Time News Feed. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/06/typing-beats-scribbling-indiana-schools-can-stop-teaching-cursive/

Ruppert, Sandra S. “Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement.” Arts Education Partnership. http://www.aep-arts.org/publications/info.htm?publication_id=31


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