The end of cursive handwriting?

The quality of handwriting is on the decline, and many children are not properly learning cursive writing. There's an old article from 2003, and a newer article from a few days ago about this problem which the older article calls "alarming." And check out the discussion at Slashdot.

My own handwriting is pretty horrid (which makes one wonder why I am so obsessed with pens), and I was never able to write in cursive as quickly as I was able to block letter, despite the fact that my grade school teachers insisted on it and I always got dinged on my report cards for bad handwriting.

It turns out that I was able to have a successful life without being good at cursive writing. The most useful skill I learned in the 6th grade was how to type. Typing has proven to be ten times more useful than writing in cursive, yet only a fraction of the educational time was spent on it--clearly a misallocation of teaching resources.

In law school, I couldn't have been happier when I learned that we were allowed to type our essay exams instead of having to handwrite them. The same was true of the Arizona bar exam.

As an adult, no one wants to read your handwriting. It's only used to take notes for yourself. I'm having trouble trying to figure out if hand writing is important at all?

Writing by hand does have some significant advantages over writing with a computer. You can write if there's no electricity. Even the tiniest and lightest notebook computers are a lot heavier than a pad of paper, and you don't have to worry about dropping or losing your paper. Paper is cheap. If you need to write something and you left your notebook computer at home, you can go into any drugstore and buy a paper notebook for not much more than the price of a cup of coffee at Starubcks. And writing on paper is nearly completely silent. It annoyed me in my classes in law school and graduate business school when people were typing in the middle of the class--even though there were times in graduate business school when I was one of the people typing during class. Although writing by hand still has its uses, in the end no one expects to read your handwriting, it's only for you to retype later if you want anyone else to read it.

Given that people will only write for themselves and not for others to read, it doesn't really make sense to spend so much time teaching children handwriting. Maybe it's time to end the teaching of cursive handwriting and just focus on block lettering? Cursive writing is supposed to be faster, but this seems to be true for only a minority of the population despite all the time and effort spent in grade school. Given the failure to successfully teach cursive writing, it makes a lot more sense for grade schools to just give up and instead focus on legible block lettering.

UPDATE

I have an additional thought in my post Does anyone read the Constitution?

Comments

[Pelkabo]

My first reaction was to wonder about signatures. Can you spell your name out in block letters on a contract, and have it be considered your legal signature? Probably. There must be millions of people in the U.S. who never learned to write in cursive, and I doubt they have any trouble obtaining credit. So, I guess it wouldn't bother me if schools stopped teaching cursive. Let them use that time for physical education.

[probligo]

Given that people will only write for themselves and not for others to read, it doesn't really make sense to spend so much time teaching children handwriting.

Sounds good.

Hey!! Let's stop teaching arithmetic. After all every kid owns a calculator. Who needs the math?

[Half Sigma]

I'm not saying we shouldn't teach children how to write. I'm saying we shouldn't teach children a second form of writing after they've already learned the first form.

Children should at least be taught to have legible handwriting.

I really think it does depend upon the person but the major point of typing or handwriting is to communicate to others. Whichever form works for you in order to get your message across clearly is fine, but a decent signature is still mandatory for many things in our day.

A job application is often done by hand for most menial jobs and a few years back when apply for a teaching job I had to write several paragraphs in a legible hand, no typing allowed.

Too many students complain today about being unable to read the teachers handwriting on the board or the comments teachers leave on their papers.

Handwriting maybe become obsolete in the to a certain extent but I think as long as their are artists, their will be those with beautiful handwriting.

[Half Sigma]

"A job application is often done by hand for most menial jobs"

(1) Those applications always say "print or type." They don't want you to write in cursive on them! The question was why are we teaching children TWO forms of handwriting when one seems no longer to be needed.

(2) A menial job is all someone will get these days if they can't type. It's far more important to teach typing than it is to teach cursive writing.

I can write in cursive in half the time it takes to print. There's a GREAT reason to learn cursive.

[Half Sigma]

Only SOME people are able to write faster in cursive. A minority in fact. If everyone found cursive faster they wouldn't abandon it and go back to printing.

Writing faster in cursive is a skill that obviously takes a lot of time and effort to master. Most people don't, so their education in cursive was a big waste.

If writing fast is so important, then why don't we teach children shorthand?

[SandraM]

Unfortunately, not being taught how to write in cursive means that many students cannot read cursive. This has implications all over the place.

[Half Sigma]

Not being able to read cursive is about as big a handicap as not being able to read Latin. I can't remember the last time anyone handed me something written in cursive that I had to read.

And reading cursive will become even less important if we stop teaching it, because then no one will be writing it at all.

However, it's not like cursive is that different looking... I think a reasonably bright person would have no problem deciphering it even if they weren't skilled in writing it themselves.

[SandraM]

I can give you a specific example. Last year, I wrote end-of-semester notes to each of my students in my fairly neat, but definitely cursive, handwriting. One of my 9th grade students had to ask another student to read it to him because he had never learned to read cursive.

It also bothers me that such students will not be able to read important documents like the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in their original form. Granted, these documents are certainly available (and more easily read) in typed form, but I think we lose a vital link with our history when our children need an interpreter to read our founding documents.

[Austrian]

It's a greater shame when those who can read the Constitution ignore what it says.

[Half Sigma]

Anyone who wants to read the original Constitution badly enough will surely figure it out.

I have to agree with the Austrian's take on this one, except that those who have read the Constitution and ignore it are in the minority-the majority haven't bothered to read it at all, despite its availability in easy to read printed form.

So here's my suggestion: have children read the printed Constitution, especially Article II Section 8, instead of teaching them a useless skill.

[Jessica]

I think it is very important for students to learn cursive handwriting. I myself write in a mixture of cursive and print, which makes it very easy for me to write very quickly. If I had not learned cursive, I wouldn't have known how to connect my letters together, and hence would not be able to write in this manner, which is clearly legible to others.

[John]

An employment application is frequently completed by hand - BEST to print for a higher probability the reader can understand - however, if you use a cursive style of writing - BE sure it is legible to the people who will be reading your application. I've been in Human Resources a long time - can't count the number of applications I've passed by - simply because the writing was not legible.

[Nancy Spungen, Esq.]

I agree that schools should focus more on teaching keyboarding skills. I think there still exists in the business world an unfortunate prejudice against having typing skills. Keyboarding is seen as a clerical task for low-level women.

[Cherio]

For those of you who want to preserve the art of cursive writing, you should do just that, teach it as an art class, then those students who enjoy it can learn and excel. To grade students on something that is an art form and not a necessary skill in life, it really is not comparable to math, is discouraging to bright students who are not artistically inclined.

[Rachel C.]

I found this page while looking for materials to teach a cursive workshop for foreign exchange students at the University of Oregon. Cursive handwriting is still alive and well. It thrives mostly among teachers. Teachers often write on the board in cursive, even at the university level. That is why I am teaching the workshop, many asian students have only learned block printing and cannot read cursive. The students I have worked with already have mastered a simple form of cursive writing in less than four hours. I wonder if the problem with cursive is that it is just dumped onto children when they have too many other things to learn. Perhaps a better solution than abandoning cursive is to simply teach it a bit later.

[Lisa]

I don't really understand the point of cursive writing. In grade school I remember teachers always saying that it was nesesscary for high school, but now that I'm in high school I have never had any teacher ask that we write everything in cursive. I've never even had a teacher require it for a paper. If cursive dies out, I wouldn't be sad.

[jsg]

I think you underestimate the importance of attractive handwriting. It's animportant element of how one represents oneself. If potential hire has attractive writing, it signifies that they posess strong attention to detail and appearance. Both of these are essential in any professional context. Unattractive handwriting, on the other hand, has often clued me in to notice deficiencies in applicants' sensibilities that I otherwise might have overlooked.

Also, while students may not be overtly graded on penmanship, there is empirical research to suggest that a strong informative bias still persists. In controlled experiments professional educators have consistently graded essays written in cursive more favorably than identical content written in plain, legible manuscript.

There could be any number of explanations for this. Perhaps it is generally the stronger students that use cursive, which creates an associative bias. Or perhaps cursive handwriting simply appears more sophisticated, or more attractive visually. No matter what the explanation is, to suggest that handwriting is a formal concern that can be wholly divorced from the substantial content of the writing seems naive.

There can be utilitarian argument for banishing all 'formal' elements. For example, a necktie does not in any way enhance job performance. Like cursive, then, all time and expense devoted to obtaining and tying neckties is wasted productivity. However, these customs won't be going away any time soon. As such, proficiency in them is important for modern living.

Annecdotal evidence that some people can have successful careers without knowing cursive is unconvincing. It may be the case that you are talented enough to succeed in spite of the handicap, just as some men who cannot dress attractively are still able to compensate with other talents to become successful, but this does not negate the argument that appearance _matters_. Or perhaps you might have been more successful had you had this skill -- there's no telling what might have been.

[David Alexander]

I stopped using cursive when teachers stopped forcing me to write in it. Once I dumped, my handwriting skills improved and teachers commented on my good writing skills. OTOH, it probably opened up more questions if I was gay or not especially with a man-hating bio honours teacher I once had...

[anonymous]

We should teach children to write in cursive because it is pretty? Someone else posted earlier that maybe we should move it to an art class which certainly seems more fitting but equally useless. Do they teach calligraphy in art class now? Why not teach calligraphy instead of cursive, it is certainly prettier?

We should teach children cursive because it is faster? I have definitely never found this to be the case, and when presented with cursive writing from you 'speed writers' I typically find it more difficult to read, not because I cannot decipher cursive writing in general, but because you wrote it so fast that it is illegible! Can you honestly tell me that you can scribble legible cursive as fast as you can type? I'll take the hit on appearing less intelligent because I choose write my prose in plain text vs cursive, knowing that it was almost certainly legible to the reader.

The point of writing is COMMUNICATION. It is much easier to read text written in plain block letters than the same text in cursive. Why put one more impediment between you and your audience? Teach plain text writing to build those synapses that are tied to that activity, but don't waste time on cursive.

[riza]

i remember in my high school days i had wished that i was taught cursive handwriting in grade school, then the curriculum did not emphasize. even after all that i struggled to learn how to write in cursive while already at college, because it gave me a sense of fulfilment to express myself in these beautiful inscriptions. i saw it as a view to one's moods, if not your entire personality. Today,i teach grade 3 pupils in Africa, hoping to imprint the essence of cursive handwriting. For me, it is also now important to understand how children react to everyday learning,you can somewhat determine if a child is responsive enough for what he is doing,particularly at school through his handwriting. as teachers and adults we need to help these children find means of improving their world everyday, this we can contribute by teaching them care about their handwriting, therefore themselves. So please inspire a child today & help out. thanks.

[Super Zoe]

Sounds like a great argument from someone who has little to no idea about how the poverty-stricken population operates. Legible writing is important. Whether it's cursive, print, or the pervasive manucursive, legible communication is the reason you prefer computers. People dwelling in poverty can't conceive of living in a world where your points, while cogent, are relevant.

In the third grade I was taught cursive. We had to pretty much write everything in cursive for almost the rest of the year or something like that. And then again in the fifth grade we were required to write everything in cursive or else it wouldn't be accepted.

Overall? It's not a big hassle or a waste of time. It was just something you had to do. Maybe the impact of learning cursive isn't really all that big. But learning it is no big deal, either.

Currently, I can read and write block as well as I can cursive. I can type 95+ words per minute. I remember learning typing in elementary school too (oh god, those old, old computers with the floppy discs bigger than your head!) and learning cursive has not affected learning typing whatsoever.

Today I write in a mixture of cursive and block. And like the post above, it is fast AND legible. :3

I don't think anything should change. It's funny how something so miniscule could piss someone off so much they think it should be discontinued. There must be something *really* personal behind it...

[K]

It's funny how something so miniscule could piss someone off so much they think it should be discontinued. There must be something *really* personal behind it.

Kind of ad hominem, no?

I didn't detect a great deal of anger, simply a question of how to allocate resources. With all that has been added to the curriculum, why not take out some things which have become obsolete? If many upper-middle-class college-educated successful adults don't use cursive, maybe it can go.

Your response strikes me as reactionary: "Because it's the way we've always done it." Nobody here is suggesting change merely for the sake of change, but a change that may be long overdue.

It could be argued that cursive is an unnecessary educational barrier to some students. Now obviously verbal lectures are an impediment to deaf students, but we keep them because not doing them would severely reduce teaching effectiveness for the other 99% of students. But cursive may be more analogous to printing textbooks in red ink on green paper: it wouldn't benefit those with normal vision, but really screw things up for the colorblind.

(Personally, I do tend to use cursive, especially to write quickly, but have never had very good penmanship. I don't really think that anyone can take notes effectively in block printing, but perhaps they can)