With technology becoming the norm in classrooms across America, the use and importance of cursive writing has come under scrutiny.  Many school districts are no longer requiring cursive or “script” to be taught in the classroom.  Just as Roman Numerals are no longer considered important neither is cursive.  Most students either print or use a computer or tablets to take notes.

But should that be the case?  She we would allow cursive writing to simply be phased out and eliminated?

There are actually many good reasons for keeping cursive writing in the curriculum.  Here are several.

1) There are occasions when one needs to sign a document, i.e. when purchasing a car or a home.  Technically, printing is unacceptable.

2)  Historical documents, i.e. the Declaration of Independence is written in cursive. If children aren’t being taught to write cursive, then they certainly won’t be able to read cursive.

3)  Signatures are unique to an individual.  No two handwritings are identical.  While signatures can be copied, an expert would be able to tell the difference in most cases between an original and a forged signature.  It’s simply another safety against fraud.

4)  Some things, despite being old or outdated remain relevant, i.e. Shakespeare.  The language used in Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth is clearly antiquated and not spoken in modern times.  However, there is so much to be learned by reading Shakespeare.  So many of our expressions were coined by Shakespeare.  Writing cursive is not exactly like learning Physics.  It doesn’t take any great intelligence or skill to learn, so why shouldn’t it be taught, simply for the sake of knowledge?

Eliminating Cursive, as most schools did with Roman Numerals, is just one more step in the dumbing down of our children.  Test taking has its place, but being an intelligent, well-rounded individual, is as important.