I discovered not long ago that teaching is something I am passionate about. I am called to it, but I have yet to discover why. As I go through my classes, learning how to be the best teacher I can be, I am developing a set of expectations for my future students. Due to this, there are certain things that will be required in my classroom. Writing in cursive will be one of these things. Every single student should be able to sign their name in cursive, at the very least. I am well aware that teachers’ schedules are jam-packed as is, but cursive writing should be added in.
It isn’t the parents’ responsibility to teach this skill to their children. Not all parents care about their child’s education as much as I would like for them to. Not only do some parents just not care, some of them may not know how to write in or read cursive. Even if these parents wanted to help, they wouldn’t be able to, as you cannot teach something you do not know. Leaving it to the parents would be an inefficient way for this skill to be mastered.
It isn’t the students’ responsibility to teach this to themselves either. I distinctly remember having a cursive writing handbook in elementary school, and never using it. I taught myself because my dad told me it was a cool thing to know how to do. Other elementary school students may not think that it is an important thing to learn, so they won’t teach themselves. Not every student that wants to learn how to write in cursive will have the drive to teach themselves. It is not an easy thing to do at their age. There will be some who start learning, but give up because they don’t understand.
Despite the problem of cursive writing being overlooked when it comes to schools’ curriculum, it is still expected of adults. We sign our names on all kinds of legal documents, our identification, and so many other things. Cursive writing is very common; you can find it anything from greeting cards to restaurant menus to notes from the doctor’s office. It is something that could be expected of employees in every field. Hand written notes can be found anywhere, at any job, and if someone can’t read cursive, they may not be able to do their job to the best of their ability.
This necessity will remind me to continue to teach everyone I can to at least write their name in cursive. It is so simple that it can very easily be taken for granted. It is almost difficult to understand that some people genuinely struggle with this. I have so much respect for the parents who are teaching their children, and for the children who are learning on their own. I know it is overlooked because there is so much content that needs to be taught, but that does not make it less of a necessity. In 50 years or so, we don’t want a generation of senior citizens who don’t know how to sign their name because cursive writing was never taught to them. That would be a disgrace to the American education system.
