{"id":10462,"date":"2020-07-01T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T19:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hesarizona.org\/glendale-charter-school\/?p=10462"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:16:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T19:16:11","slug":"the-case-for-cursive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hesarizona.org\/glendale-charter-school\/the-case-for-cursive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case for Cursive"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is old school\u2014literally, old school. If you\u2019re above a certain age, you\u2019ll remember seeing this, usually stretched out above the blackboard, in grade school:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Cursive<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to 2009, every child, upon reaching the third grade, would learn cursive. By the end of third grade, schoolwork would be done exclusively using cursive, and in the fifth grade, if your cursive was neat enough, you got to write in ink. Writing in ink meant you had arrived; you were practically an adult.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

At one time, when people communicated using pen and paper, cursive was the common currency. No one printed their letters\u2014printing was for very young children\u2014and typewriters were used more for formal or business communications. If one were writing anything\u2014from a shopping list to a thank-you note to a school essay\u2014<\/span>cursive is what was used<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Cursive wasn\u2019t only a means of written communication; it was an act of self-expression. Writing in cursive was an art. More importantly, a person\u2019s cursive handwriting not only identified them, but <\/span>told you something about them<\/span><\/a>. Check out these two handwriting samples, courtesy of <\/span>Election Academy<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>BuzzFeed<\/span><\/a>, and see if you can form a mental picture of the writers:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cursive<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cursive<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only was one\u2019s handwriting unique, but one\u2019s hand-written signature was a nearly un-duplicatable form of identification. Cursive signatures were difficult to forge and were remarkably consistent throughout one\u2019s life. Your signature proved that you were you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cursive Disappears<\/b><\/p>\n

As pervasive as cursive handwriting was in American culture, the teaching of cursive began to lose steam in the latter half of the last century. With limited school budgets, many educators thought that resources could be better spent on other subjects, and with ever-increasing time being spent on standardized testing prep, many school districts deemed cursive an unnecessary skill, taking too much valuable time to teach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With computers, phones and tablets becoming ubiquitous in the mid-2000s, hardly anyone needed a pen and paper for anything, and cursive seemed even more irrelevant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The final blow came in 2009 when states banded together to launch <\/span>Common Core State Standards<\/span><\/a>. Those standards recognized students\u2019 use of keyboarding as opposed to writing and dropped cursive from the suggested curricula of schools. By 2012, <\/span>47 states<\/span><\/a> no longer taught cursive. It was considered a \u201cdying art\u201d and it was felt this outdated art had been <\/span>replaced by technology<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cursive Makes a Comeback<\/b><\/p>\n

Within a few years, however, many Americans realized that unfamiliarity with cursive might be problematic. For example, one can certainly read the <\/span>Constitution of the United States<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>Declaration of Independence<\/span><\/a>, or the <\/span>Gettysburg Address<\/span><\/a> online, but to read them in their handwritten form adds a personalization that seeing them on an iPhone lacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another problem with not knowing cursive is that it isolates those who are cursive illiterates, separating them from the multiple generations who still use it. No child wants to feel alienated.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, just when it looked like learning cursive was down for the count, states began changing their minds, <\/span>reinstating cursive<\/span><\/a> in their curricula.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s So Good About Cursive?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Those who would eliminate cursive from schools are only seeing it as an outmoded form of messaging, and if that\u2019s how one looks at it, then switching exclusively to keyboarding makes sense. However, <\/span>learning to write in cursive<\/span><\/a> has several proven collateral benefits that children can draw upon for the rest of their lives. According to <\/span>Psychology Today<\/span><\/a>, those benefits include:<\/span><\/p>\n