Many kids in school today do not learn cursive writing. Cursive used to be taught in every school starting in about 2nd or 3rd grade. Now, kids do not even learn it at all. My little brother, who is going into sixth grade and turning 12 this October, has not a clue on how to write cursive. Ever since the BOOMING technology industry, schools have abandoned cursive, but they also abandoned all the reasons why kids should still learn it. Here are five reasons why it is a necessary lesson!
1. Every kid needs to be able to sign their own name
What happens when you have to sign a legal document, but you don't know how to properly sign your name? Or when you have to sign a credit card receipt at a store? Cursive writing is a necessary part of all of our lives. Every person needs to have a signature, whether everything is online or not, at some point in your life you are going to need to sign your name.
2. Writing in cursive is faster and more efficient
One of the number one things we all love technology so much for is its ability to get us massive amounts of info in a matter of seconds. Well, just like technology, cursive is faster! Writing in print requires you to have to keep picking your pen/pencil up from the paper. Why do that when you can just write in cursive. Writing in cursive has actually helped me a lot during lectures in school because rather than me scrambling to write in print, I just write in cursive and I actually get more down on paper than if I were to write in print.
3. Cursive writing is more mature and more professional
Sure, cursive writing may be more difficult to read, but it definitely looks better than print. Cursive writing was something every kid used to learn in school as they grew up, so to me, it shows that you have grown up and are more mature in your educational journey. Cursive writing looks better professionally and shows that you are not a little kid anymore. So, what will it look like if kids don't know how to write in cursive at all?
4. Learning cursive will actually improve hand-eye coordination
It's not a secret that learning cursive is harder than learning print, which is probably one of the reasons kids aren't learning it anymore. We, as a society are so used to having everything we need at our fingertips that no one wants to take the time out to actually concentrate on something as important as writing. However, learning cursive writing improves hand-eye coordination because it takes more concentration than regular print would. Think of all the loops and crazy letters there are in cursive. Learning to write them will improve coordination overall, which will then improve kids' ability to write overall, whether in cursive or print.
5. Learning cursive can be fun!
When I was in school and cursive was a part of our curriculum, my teacher had ways of teaching us so that we would learn and have fun at the same time! While teaching kids is not easy, one of the keys to doing so is keeping them entertained all while they learn. So, to learn cursive, my teacher would put shaving cream on our desks and spread it around so there was only but a thin layer of it on the desk. Then, to help us learn what the letters were supposed to look like, we would make out the letters with our fingers in the shaving cream. This was a creative was to help us all learn how to write in cursive!
Aside from all the obvious reasons cursive writing is still necessary, I just do not want to see cursive writing as an art form die. Technology is so great and I love it just as much as the next person, but it has also managed to take a lot of things away from us. So, let's not let it take kid's ability to simply sign their name away too!
