It’s an identifiable fact that cursive handwriting is disappearing from schools since it was dropped from K-12 education requirements more than a decade ago. The effort was seen as a practical shift with the increasing demands of a digital world. As a result, however, many students are now graduating high school with little to no ability to even read cursive.Â
What is lost in this shift away from the physical act of handwriting to digital tapping and swiping is profoundly understated. Students are losing out on significant cognitive and sensory development. Research shows that writing by hand is more beneficial for learning than typing, as it forces the brain to process and summarize information.
That cognitive development and critical thinking skill is one reason why StoneBridge emphasizes handwriting and compiling student work in physical notebooks. Students begin learning cursive letters in 2nd grade and transition to writing everything in cursive by the end of 3rd grade.Â
Handwriting also demonstrates the principle of individuality as it allows for a deeper individualized expression that typing or swiping cannot replace. Losing the ability to read cursive disconnects us from our own history, not only nationally with handwritten historical documents, but also personally from handwritten notes and old recipes from family members not even one generation removed from graduating seniors.
A recent article entitled, “Signature moves: are we losing the ability to write by hand?” published in The Guardian explores this great disconnect and asks more broadly how our embodied human experience is diminished when we abandon tactile, physical skills. Technology is a convenient tool, but the article suggests that we should not discard old practices like handwriting, which have deep cognitive, emotional, and historical value.Â
(Featured photo credit: Ben White, Unsplash.)
