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?

My dc all went from beautiful legible handwriting to a scrawling mess once they started school who only taught cursive. My ds handwriting was so poor in cursive his teacher would mark his work wrong when it was correct. Even his OT felt it was wrong for him with his needs but the school insisted that everyone do it.

He moved to a different school who didn't teach cursive and his handwriting reverted back to legible handwriting and his confidence grew as his work was being marked correctly.

DC also couldnt understand why they only write in cursive but never read anything printed in cursive. DS felt it was like he was constantly translating printed words into cursive which he found tiring.

Schools should spend more time ensuring students learn useful things and can record them properly instead of spending several months trying to ensure their students have correct fancy swirls and flicks on their handwriting. And cursive isnt faster, I've timed it for a laugh. They spend so much time doing swirls its actually slower.

I used to think same as some of PP few years ago. My ds had neat print
and struggled to learn to write in cursive.
Few years of keep using it, his writing speed has increased, and now he can write relatively neat. At this rate, I assume he will have beautifully neat (and not childish) cursive handwriting by the end of primary.

I ended up having to teach myself cursive in first year of uni as I was a defiant little madam strong-willed aged 9 and flatly refused to do cursive properly as doing the o's, a's etc felt awkward and unnatural and slowed me down.

It put me at a disadvantage during A-levels as we didn't have a computer and teachers struggled to read my scrawly essays.

Miaow was not being rude, you quoted my post then talked about what you witnessed from kids in a private school the total opposite to what I said. I just reinforced the point that I have not seen adults' handwriting looking as nice as was pictured. My point was about whether cursive was necessary, considering it looks barely legible for many, the stringent adherence to it, to me, is unreasonable.

I missed the two weeks in school when cursive was taught.

Came back from holiday and everyone was doing it. So I never learnt. Says something about term time holidays

So every single piece of research on handwriting in flawed ty ?

but the school insisted that everyone do it.

If it's a state school in England, they don't have any choice.

Not exactly the point but...
many employers now ask for a handwritten covering letter with applications

Seriously?! I have never ever seen a request for a handwritten letter as part of a job application. A cover letter, sure. But not a handwritten one. Most handwritten ones would be laughed out of the room in this day and age, surely?

I'm 24, never learnt cursive.

My DD is reception and learning as cursive (not joined up though).

My DS is year 1 and learnt cursive and is now doing joined up - although it's a mixed class with y2 and it's 'optional' if the yr1 want to try it. DS is working with the yr2s so he chose to do it.

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?

They do start that way in Portugal at least. Also France?
I have no idea why they don't in the UK.

Yes Hodge seriously many posts require a handwritten application.

But I can't read your bottom one

Clearly code. Developed over many hours of trying to write notes in lectures.

Joined up writing-great.
Learning cursive as print in Reception with lead ins etc-I’m not convinced.

It is quicker to write in cursive and easier to read cursive. Both seem redundant in the computer age but given that exams are still hand written it is still important.

It's taught from P1 in the school my children attend, so they learn to use it from the start. It actually looks neater than the printed writing of a lot of their friends. I think it makes sense to learn it from the beginning rather than start printing and then try to change later on.

I'm not sure what I did at school. I certainly was writing in cursive by the time as was in P5 as I have some old jotters from then, but I'm not sure it I did from the beginning or not.

I'm not a fan of teaching fully cursive from the start.

I'm not a fan of teaching fully cursive from the start.

Why?

I don’t like cursive from the start either. The lead ins are redundant if you teach joined up as one letter going to the starting point of the next. You don’t need the first letters of each word to have them either.

I think it's important for early reading and spelling for children to be secure with single letters first. When they see words in books they aren't joined and over complicated lead strokes can confuse. If you teach letter formation with the exit flick children can quickly and easily move from print to fully joined once secure with forming letters correctly.

When children learn cursive from the start they do learn single letters first.

And lead strokes aren't over complicated. They are made complicated when children have to learn to add them. But if they learn cursive first, the lead stroke is part of the letter.

I don't have the background to judge the merits of one or the other, but I don't think those are an issue or true.

I agree with mrz. Cursive has so many different styles. So if the child is learning to read at the same time, the letter learning to write may look quite different from print letters you see on the book. It might be confusing for some children.
I have totally different handwriting style from what ds's school teach. Ds says he can't read mine. I can read his, but I needed to get used to it first.

DS was taught different shapes for letters. They learn how to read print and write cursive. No problems here.

I don’t think you ever have to learn lead strokes, Lweji. They’re just joins. Initial letters don’t need lead strokes. It’s a divisive topic in our staffroom!

And a letter with a lead stroke can look very different to a letter in a book.

PinkAvocado

Actually, I never learned with a lead stroke. I don't think they teach it with them here either. It only comes from the previous letter.

So, the initial a wouldn't have a lead stroke. But an initial b or l, for example, would start from the line, but it wouldn't be considered a lead stroke.