Kids and Cursive — Do Children Still Need to Learn a Dated Skill?
My thoughts, experiences, and the research that changed my perspective
I learned how to write in cursive the same year I learned I’d been holding my pencil incorrectly from the moment I could even hold a pencil.
I was given a bright orange silicone grip that fit near the pointed tip, forcing my fingers into the correct position.
I stopped using it after a week because there was no way in hell fourth grade me was going to learn an entirely new way to write in print and learn cursive at the same time. I was also pretty sure, at my big age of nine, that I’d quite literally never use cursive to do anything in life other than sign my name.
And wouldn’t you know it — I was right.
As I get older and spend more time on Facebook, I inevitably see ridiculous takes from every generation, though mostly boomers and tail-end millennials.
One of those takes is that it’s absolutely unfathomable that teachers and states would dare remove cursive from the children’s curriculum.
Before researching this phenomenon, I couldn't think of a good reason why people would be angry about this.
I’m twenty-four. I can count on one hand all the times I’ve had to read cursive in the last…