While printing is commonly the preferred way to write many schools also teach their students how to write in cursive handwriting. Is it necessary for homeschool students to learn how to write in cursive? It is if you live in North Carolina where the state senate has passed a bill that needs all schools to teach their students cursive. Most people never really master cursive and tend to use a combination of print and cursive. So why should students in the age of the computer and internet learn to write cursive?
[am4show have=’p8;p9;p11;p38;’ guest_error=’Guest error message’ user_error=’User error message’ ]
Arguments for Cursive
The proponents of cursive handwriting say that without the knowledge of cursive handwriting many students will not be able to read historic documents and family heirlooms such as the letters of their grand parents. They also say that merely learning to write in cursive makes you write faster as you join the letters as you go along and do not waste precious time as you would when you moved from each letter to letter in printing the alphabet.
Arguments against Cursive
A large number of hands were used in writing different historic manuscripts. Does that mean that each child must learn every different type of ancient handwriting while still in school? It just isn’t feasible. Basic cursive reading can be taught to a five or six year old child in under an hour. It is not necessary for the child to be able to write cursive to read it. Also there is no evidence to suggest that those who write in cursive handwriting are actually faster than those who print out their letters.
Should You Teach Your Child Cursive?
Research shows that the fastest, clearest writers join certain letters while writing and not all of them. They tend to make the easiest joins while they skip the rest, using print-like shapes for letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. So it all comes down to your opinion. If you feel your child needs to learn cursive by all means teach him, but if you feel it is not necessary, just let it be.
Article Inspiration: About Homeschooling
[/am4show]
Your blog might have mentioned a different cursive popular among homeschoolers, Getty/Dubay italic handwriting and, Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting, also italic.
Because some of what you wrote is taken from messages sent to the North Carolina Legislature and elsewhere, it would have been good to name your source, my colleague, Kate Gladstone.