With computers emerging into today’s society, typing has become our primary source for writing. This advancement has changed the criteria in teaching today as a number of leaders in education have deemed cursive as an unnecessary standard.

This change has left a negative impact on our teenage generation. In 2010, schools removed the cursive curriculum, leaving many new generation students unable to read or write in cursive.

Though the majority of all education is dependent on technology, I think it is essential to enforce and bring back the instruction of cursive writing.

Cursive was taught at the same time education began. At first, it started with the Spencerian script. This was very fancy writing, but it was not practical to learn as the years went on. Once education became more universal, they developed the Palmer and the D’Nealian methods which are the cursive styles that are used the most. 

Today, we use the Zaner-Bloser method. It is the boring and simple straight up and down manuscript printing that we use on our school work.

With this being said, there are many reasons that schools need to teach cursive:

1. Learning cursive develops essential skills

Learning cursive is important for cognitive development because it teaches the brain functional spatialization which allows a person’s brain to integrate things like movement, sensation, and thinking. Writing in cursive activates more parts of the brain at once than the Zaner-Bloser method. As a result, learning cursive has the ability to improve a person’s motor coordination and higher-level thinking skills.

2. Our founding documents were written in cursive

Have you ever looked at a historic letter and couldn’t read the handwriting? The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and many historical documents are written in cursive and most teens aren’t able to read them. I have an easy solution for you! If you learn cursive, you will be able to read these important documents. I think that is a major benefit!

3. We need a signature to sign important documents

Now that we are all entering early adulthood, it is a good skill to acquire. Having to sign important documents will come sooner than we think, and having the ability to properly sign our names in cursive on a legally binding document will make us feeling more confident and professional.

It is something that can be easily learned in a few weeks. Yes, it may involve lots of patience, but it is more advanced and artistic than your average writing. If you start now, you will thank yourself in the future.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Reach Dana Ibarra at [email protected].