Cursive Writing

Over the weekend I was at a civic event when someone in my group said, “It’s a shame that they don’t teach cursive writing in schools anymore.” I replied, “Why?” Not “why don’t they teach cursive writing” which we’ll accept as true even though I doubt it is, but “why would it be a shame if cursive writing was not taught?”

I confess to trying to be a bit provocative, but it was also intended as a serious question. One of my informal management rules is that if I ask someone why they are doing something, if the only thing they come up with is, “we’ve always done it this way,” then it may be time to reassess the practice being questioned.

I believe this is the case with cursive writing. The best argument in defense of the practice is that much of our accumulated knowledge is stored in cursive writing and so that knowledge might be withheld from someone who can’t read cursive. But that was once true for Latin, and few of us study Latin anymore. Some do, but these days it is a nice-to-have elective. I believe learning how to comprehend cursive writing will be like that, too, although that grossly overestimates the effort it takes to discern the meaning of cursive writing. In other words, if you can read printing (which is the common term for block lettering or non-cursive writing), it is not a great leap to be able to read cursive.

Given modern technology, there are some downsides to the continued use of cursive. Print, when produced on a computer of other device, is searchable and can be read by a machine whereas cursive cannot (as far as I know). These technological features of print are extremely valuable, but if you are not aware of them or you have never (knowingly) used them, you would be unaware of this utility. Not coincidently, the people most likely not to be aware of these newer technologies are the same people who have grown up with and are fully comfortable with cursive.

To be clear, I am not an enemy of cursive. I use it on a daily basis. When I take notes in cursive, I retain the material much better than when I take notes on a keyboard. But that’s only because I’m used to doing it that way. Someone who grew up with a keyboard might feel exactly the opposite.

So don’t give up on cursive, but on the other hand, don’t force it upon future generations of students, especially if it comes at the expense of another subject that might be more valuable such as math, science, history, literature, art, music, or just about anything else.