Should Cursive Writing Be Taught In Schools

1207 Words3 Pages

Why Cursive Writing Should Continue to be Taught in Schools
“I think your cursive writing identifies you as much as your physical features do.” Alabama state rep. Dickie Drake. Recently, cursive writing has been eliminated from common core and is not required to be taught in schools. Many schools are abandoning it and are not teaching it at all to students. Teachers are doing this because they think it is a “lost art”. Many teachers say they do not have time for it and teach kids keyboarding skills instead. However, cursive is anything but a lost art. Many people still use it today, especially when signing checks and official documents. Cursive should continue to be taught in schools because is it is beneficial in many ways, it is used in many …show more content…

Cursive is especially used in many historical documents as well. Phyllis Ness, Clarkston Community Schools elementary literacy coordinator, said, “Looking at the Declaration of Independence for example, a child will be asked to read that and then we wonder, well, ‘How can they read cursive if they haven’t been taught cursive?’” This statement is true, if students don’t know how to read cursive how will they be able to read historical documents like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, etc. Passage four says, “Many historical documents are written in cursive. While some of these documents are readily available online in print form, not all of them are.” This quote is also true. Not teaching cursive will make students miss out on a part of history. Cursive is not only used in historical documents but in modern ones as well. On checks, contracts, permission slips, etc., it is required to sign your name. Without being taught cursive, you would not be able to sign your own name on these official documents. You also would not be able to read other people’s names on these documents. Cursive may not be used very often, but it is important to know how to read and write in when dealing with …show more content…

Passage four, “5 Reasons Cursive Writing Should be Taught in School”, says, “They (students) may very well miss out on reading important letters and cards from their grandparents or great grand-parents. The older generation still writes in cursive on a daily basis. Kids often rely on their parents to translate these letters and cards for them because they simply cannot read cursive writing.” This is a true statement. Many older people still send letters and cards in cursive to their grandchildren on birthdays and holidays, except the children can not read the letters. These children may look back at these letters years from now when they miss their grandparents and want to read the letters, but they will not be able to read them. These are not the only people who prefer to write in cursive though. Many children like cursive better than print as well. According to The Detroit News “Detroit school charts own path with cursive”, “In Reed’s class (Detroit Waldorf School fourth grade teacher, Diane Reed) students write exclusively in cursive - and most seem to like it. Ten-year old Mari Montgomery has gotten so used to writing in cursive that she prefers it to printing now.” This proves that not only older people, but younger children who are just learning how to write in cursive enjoy writing in it over printing. So, to stop teaching cursive would also be unfair to these people who write in cursive regularly, since people will

Open Document