Do you think cursive is important for your kids to learn?

I went to a catholic school, where I learned how to write the alphabet in cursive before I learned how to write in print. I am forever grateful for that even if I hated every other aspect of being there lol, I definitely plan to teach my child how to read & write cursive.

I’m a middle school teacher and this is mostly taught in elementary (at least that’s where I learned) but I will say it’s WILD to see kids sign their name in print 😳

They need to learn how to read it because some people can’t read cursive or fancy writing and that’s ridiculous. I don’t need them to be able to write perfect looking cursive but they need to learn all the letters and write them even if it looks like crap.

It’s connected letters. It’s not really that hard to write or read if you are literate.

It was probably tricky for people the the past. In the 1900’s the population was only 20% literate. By 1980 that number grew to 70%

Cursive wasn’t the problem, literacy was.

I think most adults would be able to read documents in script! The letters aren’t too far from their print versions. Of course there are a few exceptions but it should be easy enough to fill in those gaps. I wouldn’t really expect a child to read script. Even if a child could read script it’d be incredibly difficult to read something like the US Constitution due to the outdated language. I’d honestly be surprised if a modern day adult could read it with complete comprehension. And the Magna Carta is written in Latin, so it is already inaccessible to most people. With all of that said I’m not too worried about my kids learning script! Written language evolves all the time 

I think it's a skill worth teaching. It's a good lesson in fine motor control. Kids tend to have an easier time with letters that flow naturally, rather than picking up the pen and stopping constantly, and it's said to reduce letter reversal (for example, b and d look quite similar, but in cursive script the child never has to lift their pen and remember which side the circle goes on. I've read that it improves reading comprehension in general.

For me I think the biggest benefit is that it's an activity that engages multiple areas of the brain - not just the analytical side, but the artistic areas as well. Anything that engages multiple areas in the brain, to me, is beneficial. But also the retention you get from actually writing things down, vs. typing them digitally, is amplified when you write in cursive. There are a lot of benefits really.