Handwriting used to be a big part of school curricula. Penmanship was once part of most report cards. Now with today’s technology, keyboarding and an emphasis on teaching skills for standardized tests, cursive doesn’t play a big role in classroom lessons.
That’s been a controversial topic among parents who either worry their child is missing a critical skill or are happy to see that time spent elsewhere.
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We asked Southwest Florida parents on Facebook what they thought about children learning cursive in school and received some 60 varied responses.
“A child should be well-taught his or her own signature at a minimum. Reading cursive is difficult if you don’t know the letters so I have taught my children, but I don’t expect elegant proficiency in their writing per se,” writes Elizabeth Walsh.
“They need to be able to sign their name,” states Lauren Ashleigh. “And delving deeper, upcoming generations need to be able to read things like our founding documents.”
“When they get a drivers license, write a check, sign a legal document they must be able to sign their name,” adds Diane Dorsey. “Sadly many don’t know how to.”
Others disagree.
“You can only teach a finite amount of ideas/skills,” writes Jeff Rhodes. “Every minute spent on cursive is one less minute spent on typing or math or science.”
“I don’t particularly see the point of spending time in the classroom on this,” agrees Chelsea Ward. “Most historical documents have been converted to computer text. Our signatures are quickly becoming our fingerprints. People don’t write things down anymore, it’s all in type.”
“It might not be necessary anymore,” adds Charlotte Martin. “Cursive has had its day. ... We need to prepare children to be successful in the world they live in and that world is data driven and wired. What about using that time to teach coding? Some things just aren’t as relevant as time passes by. Shorthand is no longer offered as a high school course. It’s no longer necessary to teach kids how to make their own soap from animal fat and lye.”
Cursive is part of the curriculum in both Collier and Lee counties. Children typically start learning the skill at the end of second grade and have additional lessons in cursive in third grade. A few teachers require some things to be written in cursive in upper elementary school, though lessons in cursive in these grades are limited or nonexistent.
“Cursive writing is currently included in the Florida Standards in grades three through five,” says Jennifer Kincaid, executive director of curriculum and instruction for Collier County Public Schools. “Elementary students begin learning cursive in the second semester of the second-grade year.”
Collier buys practice books and provides curriculum maps for teaching the skill, Jennifer says. The time devoted to handwriting varies by grade level but averages 15 to 30 minutes per day. “Legible handwriting is a valuable skill,” she says.
Bethany Quisenberry, director of elementary curriculum for Lee County Public Schools, says handwriting is introduced in third grade and continues the rest of elementary school.
“There is not a set time spent on cursive writing,” Bethany explains. It varies depending on how much time students need to learn other lessons. Teachers are encouraged to build the skill into their reading lessons. “…This gives students the opportunity to apply their cursive writing skills while learning their reading standards.”
After elementary school, using cursive is generally up to the students.
“I accept anything that I can read,” says Gina Hess, an English teacher at North Naples Middle School. “Some kids like to write in cursive. They ask me how to write a letter in capital form sometimes. But I don’t think any of us require something to be written in cursive.”
Indeed, many people don’t write in cursive anymore, as Patricia Trish Greedy Engvalson pointed out in her Facebook post: “I learned and wrote cursive proficiently as a child. I home schooled my children and taught them cursive as well. My daughter who is an attorney, my son, a pilot, another a business man, another a musician. We all print. LOL”
That’s good news for local students who struggle with the task.
We talked with six students at Naples Park Elementary School and only one enjoyed learning cursive.
“It wastes my time,” said fourth-grader Luke Serrano, 10. “It is important to make money.”
“It gives my hands cramps,” added his twin sister, Ella.
“No, I don’t like it,” said Madison Eaton, 9, also a fourth-grader. “My sister said it was important.”
Fifth-grader John Sponseller, 11, said he does all his school reports on the computer
.“I don’t think it’s important to learn,” John said. “It is very hard. I don’t even know how.”
“If I learned, I would like it,” said fifth-grader Brennan Falcone, 10. “I can read some of the words in cursive. In third grade we would practice, but there was a thing with the letters on the wall.”
Only fourth-grader Zanna Lawson, 9, said she enjoys cursive.
“I like it,” Zanna said. “I like how it is pretty. It is very neat. It is very important because when you are an adult you have to use it for checks and bills.”
Amy Sherman, a second-grade teacher at Pinewoods Elementary School in Estero, teaches cursive starting in January. She also writes her lessons on the board in cursive, so her students can start learning how to read the letters. She says capital Q and I seem to be the hardest cursive letters for her students to master.
“We don’t have workbooks, but we have pages that we copy off for them,” Amy says. “There is a program online that allows you to write what you want, and they can trace it and copy it. I have them practice their name first and practice writing the names of their friends.”
Amy says it is important for students to learn cursive.
“I taught fifth grade for years, and I had so many students that could not read or write cursive,” she says. “When my son was in middle school and needed a note for his teacher and I gave him the note, he looked at it and said ‘Mom, I need it in English.’ I teach it so they can read it and they can write it.”
A New York Times article in 2013 outlined the benefits of cursive, explaining that writing in cursive is shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. It leads to increased comprehension and participation. The article cited studies that showed cursive is vital to helping students master the standards of written expression and critical thinking and life skills that go well beyond the classroom.
Jessica Murphy hopes educators realize that.
“Penmanship in general is a skill, something to take pride in, and should be taught in school, both printing with clarity and cursive,” she writes in our call out on Facebook. “It’s disheartening to see that the push to make our kindergartens and first graders college ready is creating a new generation of children who can hardly print, much less write in cursive. As a former teacher, I know there is no time built into the curriculum to allow children to simply practice penmanship. I recall spending time everyday on penmanship through the fifth grade, specifically using cursive starting in second grade. The push was never to have perfect calligraphic writing, but to focus our minds, slow our hand, and engage our creative side. Unfortunately, those who determine what our children need to learn, do not understand the value of developing these qualities in children.”
Want to teach your child to write in cursive?
There are many good online resources, particularly free worksheets that guide students by giving them letters to trace and space to practice. There are also numerous videos on YouTube that walk students through the process.
- One source of free cursive writing worksheets is k5learning.com/cursive-writing-worksheets.
- YouTube hosts video lessons on cursive. Try The HEV Project’s “How to Write in Cursive.”
What to write? A book of inspiring quotes can provide good fodder for practice.