Why Does It Important To Be Cursive

Cursive Writing in Elementary Schools

As technology becomes more prevalent in our society, we often see older traditions dying out. Classic chalkboards are replaced with high-tech Smart Boards, handwritten letters replaced by a Facebook message. It’s normal for the human race to evolve to bigger and better things, but there are some traditions so valuable they must be preserved through the generations. Cursive writing is one of those traditions, and yet some believe elementary schools shouldn’t teach it to students anymore. One of the most common arguments is that some believe cursive has outlived its usefulness, but I disagree. Cursive writing is an important skill in a variety of ways and should be taught in primary schools nationwide.

Due to its long history, countless important documents are written in cursive. The Declaration of Independence, for example, is written in cursive. If students aren’t taught to write cursive, they will be unable to read cursive. How are they supposed to read original copies of these documents? Aside from government documents, documents written by generations prior may be written in cursive. Letters written by grandparents, legal wills, etc., may all be written in cursive that they cannot read if they have not learned cursive. Not to mention the countless primary sources given to students in many history classes. Letters between presidents during important time periods, letters between soldiers during war, etc., the list is endless. The benefits primary sources bring to the classroom are never-ending. It gives students a different view of that period in history from someone who was there. If they can’t read cursive, they will be missing out on these important opportunities. Although some believe reading cursive is a useless skill, historical documents students are required to read, such as The Constitution, will always be written in cursive, proving this belief

Signing for packages, signing after making a purchase, signing official documents, etc., all require you to sign your name in cursive. Everyone develops their own unique style of cursive, which makes it much more difficult to forge compared to print. Some may argue that they only have to learn their own name in cursive, which admittedly may take less instructional time. However, teaching each individual student the specific letters for their name seems fairly tedious when you can teach the class as a whole the entire alphabet and then apply that to their signature. Not to mention that learning the entire alphabet would allow them to use cursive in other situations as well. I understand the valid point that striking cursive from our curriculum would eventually entirely prevent the dreaded illegible doctor’s prescription, but overall the benefits of cursive outweigh the drawbacks. Not only does cursive benefit by teaching students their signature, but research indicates that writing letters by hand can actually improve letter recognition during early childhood, by engaging kinesthetic