Top 10 Reasons to Learn Cursive - Memoria Press
As a parent of two grade school students, I am perplexed at the notion that, if left to the Ontario school system's devices, there is a good chance they'll never be taught cursive, and therefore could graduate high school without knowing how to sign their names, or even read other people's signatures.
It boggles my mind how this is acceptable to anyone who truly cares about the quality of the education system--the only answers I ever get when debating the issue with the anti-cursive crowd is "because iPhones", or "because computers". This mindset would like to refer to itself as "pragmatic", but it's actually a very industrial school of thought that is aimed at producing cogs for the system (i.e. compliant worker bees), rather than innovators and free-thinkers (i.e. potential disruptors and troublemakers).
I say that the anti-cursive mindset is far from pragmatic because, by dropping this very important component from the basic literacy skill set, students are being robbed blind from a developmental point of view. Consider the points Iris Hatfield lays out in Top 10 Reasons to Learn Cursive, published by Memorial Press.
Hatfield points out that learning cursive leads to improved neural connections, improved ability to read cursive, increased writing speed, improved fine motor skills, as well as increased retention and ease of learning, among other things.
In my opinion, cursive is a foundational skill that has value well beyond simply being able to write stuff down. At a time when there is a whole industry that would see teachers replaced altogether by computers and robots, and students thus turned into "zombie kids", educators need to assert their true value over that of mere technology--leading a movement back to cursive and good overall penmanship would be a great place to start.
Otherwise, teachers are proclaiming their growing irrelevance with every Chromebook and iPad they hand out in the name of "education".
I wouldn't say that I was ant-cursive by any stretch of the imagination... however, I do print when I write... I can't really speak of the actual benefits of handwriting (although, I do think that it is much better for forming logical reasoning and thoughts than typing on a screen is...).
I do know about the teaching of various outdated Mathematical concepts though... there is the idea that the computers and calculators can handle it all and all that needs to be done is the entering of the equations... however, if you don't understand the basic concept of what the computer is doing... then crap in is crap out!
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It is not education but indoctrination. State education system takes as their maximum priority the teaching of what makes their citizen slaves and they do it when they are very young so there is no possibility of alternative thinking or doubts; everything else is just something to call for people to get in.
I think that by working with computers for 2 decades now, I have pretty much lost the ability to do the nice cursive letters I used to... 🤦♂️
Thanks for your article.
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I confess that I do my own hybrid of cursive and printing for most of my work, but I agree that it's an important skill to have - no matter what you do (or don't) with it. It's one of many reasons I've chosen to home school, and though my children resist learning cursive, at least they should be able to read it!
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