It’s difficult to find exact statistics but one article I read says 46 states no longer require the teaching of cursive writing. Keyboarding, online banking, echecks, debit cards, and electronic signatures have rendered it … obsolete.
There are as many arguments against cursive writing as there are in favor of it. Maybe I’m upset because I absolutely loved cursive writing as a student and as a teacher. It was fun for me. (not for all students, I know) It’s a craft… an art… a skill.
Your writing is almost as personal as your fingerprint. It’s unique. It always amazed me…. Hundreds of school children learn the exact same technique for forming their letters, yet I could always identify my student’s papers just by their handwriting style.
In college, the act of writing notes helped me remember! Sometimes I would study for a test by recopying terms and concepts.
Maybe it’s a waste of valuable classroom time. Maybe kids can “get by” without it. In all my years of teaching, I don’t remember ever wanting students to just “get- by”.
How meaningful is a typed sympathy card or thank you note as opposed to a handwritten note?
Should artists quit painting because we have computer graphics?
Should we stop teaching math skills since we have calculators and spreadsheets?
My support for cursive writing is not scientific. It’s personal. After all would my Mother have kept this handwritten poem from 1959 had it been typed?
“In all the world, there is no other
Can take the place, of my dear Mother.
Love, Ruth”
I doubt it.
Retired Ruth 
Oh gosh. Your poem to your mother gave me goosebumps. It wouldn’t have the same power in a text message, would it?
That being said, my daughter sent me an e-card recently that said, “Home is where the Mom is.” It made me all goosebumpy too.
I’m with you. Cursive handwriting cannot go the way of the dinosaurs. Interesting that you were writing about this all those months ago. I’m glad the issue is still under debate. Maybe we will win.
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Home is where the Mom is… that is goosebumpy material…. maybe it’s the sender, not the medium. But I still agree with you…. look at all those lovely handwritten manuscripts through the ages….. The Declaration of Independence. Its a work of art. My friend and I still write handwritten letters. It IS a chore, I must admit but I dont want to let it die!
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Don’t even get me started about the things which aren’t taught anymore–and certainly should be!! I get rabid–scary!
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Maybe we should all get rabid-scary…. there are some things that were better back in the old days! not everything… but some!
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Well, I’m thinking communication skills, definitely. This “text generation” is deplorable and frightening. And if people want to vote, they still have to sign (as in cursive) their names on the ballot envelope. I’ll stop there–don’t want to scare you too badly!
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Not easily scared when it comes to this topic. I started teaching in 1971, retired in 2011 and the changes I experienced with communication skills, math skills, discipline, respect…..well… all topics for future posts! But, yes, the communication skill changes are what we deal with daily and it is very scary!
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I so agree. I can tell which student wrote a paper without a name based on the handwriting. I received a typed thank you generic note once that had been stuck in the card. . .so impersonal and almost offensive knowing the exact same slip of paper went in every card. I remember my daughter hand wrote a paragraph personalizing every thank you note after her wedding, and several friends actually said how nice and welcomed that was. It is such a lost art.
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