Cursive writing was supposed to be dead by now. The Common Core standards no longer required teaching it, and people didn’t seem to mind. However, cursive has displayed a gritty staying power.

Arkansas mandated cursive instruction last year, and Louisiana recently passed a law requiring that all public schools begin teaching cursive by 3rd grade and continue through 12th grade. Now, 10 other states, including Virginia, California, Florida and Texas, have cursive writing requirements in their standards.

The cursive comeback is linked to studies that show learning cursive engages the brain more deeply, and improves fine motor skills. It improves spelling and comprehension, helps generate ideas, and increases writing speed. Learning cursive has its upsides.

What Research is Saying

“There’s a myth that in the era of computers we don’t need handwriting. That’s not what our research is showing,” says a University of Washington professor. This professor co-authored studies on the topic and followed the same children to track their development. “Children until about 6th grade write more words, faster and expressing more ideas when they write by hand instead of typing.” She recommends a minimal daily instruction that that focuses on acquiring the basics. “Let’s put handwriting back in schools, but just enough to let us get on with the real business of writing and communicating,” she said.

D.C. Public Schools also leave the decision on whether to include cursive as part of the curriculum up to individual principals and teachers. “I trust our teachers to teach kids what they need to know without mandating every little thing,” said the outgoing D.C. Public Schools Chancellor. “And I feel like we are increasingly in a place where the mandates are overwhelming.”….Amen sister!

Steven Purcell, 9, of Sacramento, CA, has been learning to write in cursive at home. His parents work in the computer science field, but they want their son to be able to write in cursive because they believe a foundation in handwriting could affect a child’s ability to innovate. “There’s a clear difference in the creative part of the brain when you are writing verses typing,” said Evan’s mother, who works for Google. “I support our public schools, but I feel like it’s a huge disservice to not teach handwriting and cursive.”

Our Verdict

So, is cursive dead? I don’t think so. I plan to continue teaching cursive in my classroom. Reading historical documents, signing a name, and even creating graphic designs rely on using cursive. Those things are just too important to completely sweep cursive instruction to the side.

If you feel the same, please check out the Cursive Unit I recently put together. This is the perfect resource to introduce cursive letter formation and enhance cursive practice in a fun and meaningful way. Each page provides students with a verbal guide to practice before they trace and write each letter. I also include 2 cursive alphabet lines to line the top of a bulletin board, and 60 half sheets of content rich cursive handwriting practice.