Why is cursive writing important?

[Govinda]

Just that really?

My eleven year olds handwriting looks so messy and horrible compared to if he didnt join it up. All his homework sheets say that they have to do it in joined up writing. I remember getting taught this in primary school myself but as soon as I went to highschool I stopped doing it. Just wondering why its so important?

Miaow I will reiterate and add that I have never seen such neat handwriting from an adult in my life.

In my life I have worked with lawyers, accountants, many of whom were in private schools (not sure of the importance), I'll assume something happens from private school to the real world.

DS(25) always struggled with cursive writing and just printed everything and still does. He got good GCSEs, A levels and a Physics degree and it never held him back, his writing is quite neat but looks fairly childish looking.

The evidence doesn't support your view ty, because there is no stop start after each letter fully joined has less impact on the thought process. It's also recognised as benefitting children with dyslexia.

Miaow we've had many children with diagnosed dyspraxia and in every single case the OT has recommended cursive handwriting (Speed Up program).

I struggle to read cursive for some reason. My brain doesn't like it and I've never been able to do it. I've never really thought about why but now I've no idea whether children's handwriting is as bad as I think it is 🤔

Norestformrz We all know that evidence can be biased too due to unreliable research methods, various types of bias etc. I'd have to see 'the evidence' to be convinced. Not that invested in this topic though.

All I can say is adults writing in such neat & sweet cursive style is highly unusual and slightly weird.

I can't do cursive writing. There's some letters I join up but others that I don't. My handwriting is... unique!! I'm dyspraxic. But I still managed to get a degree from Cambridge and earn a six figure salary in a career which requires a lot of note taking. Everything is done on laptop these days. I wouldn't worry too much...

To a certain extent it seems like a generational thing. Most of my parents' generation and those before them seem to have been taught very nice cursive which does not look at all childish. I agree that the example in the picture above is very neat but does look a bit childish.

Ds age 9 was furious that his teachers are trying to get him to ruin his relatively neat printing by using cursive, but it's getting neater and I think he'll find it quicker when he's having to write more at secondary school. I hate the idea of handwriting dying out altogether. I keep a written journal and find I remember things much better if I hand-write them.

In my view adults cursive handwriting looks puerile.

Only if you do it like you learned in primary school.

I always write in cursive because it's way faster than printed type letters, but my handwriting looks nothing like a child's.

On the contrary, I find printed letter type writing childish. Because it takes so much longer to write it.

tyGalore You sound awfully like one of those "We've all had enough of experts" types.

Apply Occam's Razor to this. Why would groups of people bother going to the trouble of faking a substantial body of evidence pointing to the (positive) link between cursive writing and learning? A genuine conspiracy would have to exist in order for such a coherent body of fakery to exist. And for what? A strange conspiracy to enforce cursive writing? Why?

I think your post wins my personal prize for the most baffling and paranoid (and bafflingly paranoid) remark I have yet seen posted on the internet.

I'm really glad I clicked on this thread, by the way. I'm really enjoying dreaming up scenarios where a secret cabal of lizard-aliens have infiltrated research groups of educationalists and psychologists in order to promote cursive writing. What the infiltrated people don't know is that, in fact, cursive writing inhibits learning. If it weren't for the lizard-aliens and their dastardly plot, the infiltrated people would have invented mass space-travel, devastating weaponry, and would have colonised much of their section of the galaxy.

Oh, those terrible lizards!

In any case, surely those saying cursive looks childish are thinking of particular neat, very uniform and often very rounded styles of cursive? Whereas cursive really just means the letters are joined.

The only adult I know who doesn't join their letters is FIL and that's because he's an engineer and prints immaculately as he would on technical drawings. All other adults I know join their letters but in 'normal', not necessarily neat, handwriting. It doesn't look childish, it's not in a particular taught style. It just looks like normal adult writing.

I'm going to start nosying at my colleagues handwriting because I honestly associate joined up writing with children rather than adults lol. At least no adults in my family or my husband's side write in cursive.... I know that much. What is slightly weird is that my brother and I have identical handwriting. We are 5 years apart and were schooled at different times....we didn't even notice this until we were both adults and started sending each other birthday cards. Identical non cursive letters.

Surely neatness and cursive are two completely different issues? You learn neat cursive and the more you jot fast-paced notes as a student or at work, the messier it becomes. But the letters aren't repelled from each other by the messiness.

(Never mind that though, thecatfromjapan's lizard theory is far better)

It's bull. my daughter's handwriting was clear and legible. then came cursive writing. she's slower trying to join up and her letters can't be read.

Possibly because she was taught cursive too late.

I’m always fascinated by this. I remember learning to write and handwriting practise. We weren’t taught continuous cursive - where each letter is joined - but rather just sensible links between certain letters eg a d with an e following it just flows but other letters don’t so much.
Apparently it’s very helpful with young children as each letter starts in the same place so they don’t have to think too much about how to form each letter.

My cursive examples.

I don't know how you can write faster than my bottom example using disjointed letters.
And I'm pretty sure it doesn't look puerile.

Lweji, top 2 looks beautiful and not childish at all. But I can't read your bottom one.

There is no need for a conspiracy for research to be 'wrong'. All you need is a bias.

So perhaps private schools are hot on teaching cursive, and those children taking notes in cursive remember more. Which might because cursive helps memory. Or might be because private school kids are also taught more memorisation skills.

Or the research could be very valid and good. Just by saying that not all published research is 'true' does not make you an expertism-denier, or conspiracy theorist.

Btw the PP that questioned the research did not say it was untrue; just that they were not as yet convinced. I too prefer to read research for myself rather than just 'believe' - and I know that lots of published research is actually little more than rubbish. And even the good research, by the time it has been distilled for the lay person, pulled through the media, and discussed on social media, is often quite far away from what the 'evidence' says.

But like PP in this particular case I cannot be bothered. I'm not about to decide policies and do not need to 'know' this particular thing in order to support my own children, for now. If my children should struggle with cursive at some point, I know that there is research out there so I would read it up to find out how to best support them (e.g. is it worth it to make the learn even when on the face of it, printing/typing is easier/faster/more legible). I wouldn't go by the claims on social media or other media.

irvine, it says 'messy cursive for me to read' so it doesn't matter that you can't read it! :)

Thanks, now I can read it!
Still, it looks very artistic and beautiful. I wish I can write like that.

I don't know. I do know my DS had lovely handwriting before the school insisted on cursive, and it's now a mess, and he has lost a lot of confidence as a result.

I teach at an independent school and we don't insist on cursive, although we do have handwriting clinics if children have near-illegible writing. Most kids write pretty well using their own chosen style.

I was never 'taught' cursive IIRC, but write in a joined-up style anyway as it developed naturally.

@Lweji or too young?

If children can't hold a pencil properly is it really worth cursive and if it is, why don't they start off that way?

We were asked by one of our lecturers not to use cursive in our exams as it makes marking slower and we could lose out in marks.

I only really use cursive now in thank you cards, never at work.