
Keyboards are overrated. Cursive is back and it’s making us smarter - hiatuscc
https://qz.com/1037057/keyboards-are-overrated-cursive-is-back-and-its-making-us-smarter/
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KateGladstone
Handwriting matters — does cursive? Research shows that legible cursive
writing averages no faster than printed handwriting of equal or greater
legibility. (Sources for all research are available on request.) Further
research shows that the fastest, clearest handwriters avoid cursive. They join
only the most easily joined letter-combinations, leaving others unjoined,
using print-like shapes for letters whose printed and cursive shapes disagree.
(Many people who think that they "print" actually write in this practical way
without realizing that they do so. The handwriting of many teachers comes
close: even though, often, those teachers have never noticed that they are not
at all writing in the same 100% print or 100% cursive that they demand that
their students should write.) Teaching material for such practical handwriting
abounds — especially in much of the UK and Europe, where such practical
handwriting is taught at least as often as the accident-prone cursive that too
many North American educators venerate. (Again, sources are available on
request.) For what it's worth, there are some parts of various countries
(parts of the UK, for instance, despite their mostly sensible handwriting )
where governmental mandates for 100% joined cursive handwriting have been
increasingly enforced, without regard for handwriting practicality and
handwriting research, In those parts of the world, there are rapidly growing
concerns on the increasingly observed harmful educational/literacy effects
(including bad effects on handwriting quality) seen when 100% joined cursive
requirements are complied with:
[http://morrellshandwriting.co.uk/blog/](http://morrellshandwriting.co.uk/blog/)
Reading cursive, of course, remains important —and this is much easier and
quicker to master than writing cursive. Reading cursive can be mastered in
just 30 to 60 minutes, even by kids who print. Given the importance of reading
cursive, why not teach it explicitly and quickly, once children can read
print, instead of leaving this vital skill to depend upon learning to write in
cursive? Educated adults increasingly quit cursive. In 2012, handwriting
teachers were surveyed at a conference hosted by cursive textbook publisher
Zaner-Bloser.. Only 37% wrote in cursive; another 8% printed. Most — 55% —
wrote with some elements resembling print-writing, others resembling cursive.
When even most handwriting teachers do not follow cursive, why glorify it?
Cursive's cheerleaders allege that cursive has benefits justifying absolutely
anything said or done to promote it. Cheerleaders for cursive repeatedly
allege research support — repeatedly citing studies that were misquoted or
otherwise misrepresented by the claimant or by some other, earlier
misrepresenter whom the claimant innocently trusts. What about cursive and
signatures? Brace yourself: in state and federal law, cursive signatures have
no special legal validity over any other kind. (Hard to believe? Ask any
attorney!) Questioned document examiners (specialists in the identification of
signatures, verification of documents, etc.) find that the least forgeable
signatures are the plainest. Most cursive signatures are loose scrawls: the
rest, if following cursive's rules at all, are fairly complicated: easing
forgery. All handwriting, not just cursive, is individual. That is how any
first-grade teacher immediately discerns (from print-writing on unsigned work)
which child produced it. Mandating cursive to save handwriting resembles
mandating stovepipe hats and crinolines to save clothing. Kate Gladstone
DIRECTOR, the World Handwriting Contest CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting
That Works
[http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com](http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com)
handwritingrepair+media@gmail.com

