Cursive On You

My newspaper this morning surprised me with information about yet another of the many good things killed by modern technology- cursive writing. With the rise of word processing, texting and twittering, young people have fewer needs to write by hand, but I am amazed at how few kids today can write in cursive. It's dying so fast because it is easier and faster to type on a display. Easier and faster are the operative words in today's electronic addicted culture. Quality seems not as important as either speed or ease of production. the cnsensus on handwriting experts is that cursive will soon be as relevant as is speaking Latin.

The newspaper quoted quite a few educators on how much cursive they see now in both their classrooms and on student assignments. For example, at the University of Portland, Richard Christen, an education professor, leafed through short essays his students wrote in class to check for the reporter. Only two of the 17 papers were written in cursive. The rest were printed. The College Board got similar results when it sampled 6,498 essays written for its SAT college entrance exam between March 2005 and January 2006. Only fifteen percent of the essays were written in cursive.

Advocates of cursive writing say it is an artistic enterprise that encourages thinking and imagination. Writers often say they "think differently" when typing as opposed to hand writing in cursive. And researchers using magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity say handwriting, whether print or cursive, engages more of the brain in learning and forming ideas. But then we are a technology addicted culture that slavishly worship the ease of each new technology.

What shocks me about death of cursive writing in Portland and Oregon is how little it is taught or required here. In my former home of New Orleans, students still learn the old Palmer method of cursive writing, and all students can write easily in cursive by the end of 3rd grade. They still do it as habitually as we did it. But Oregon's public school curriculum standards call for teaching cursive handwriting only to students in third and fourth grade. In fifth grade through grade 12, students are expected merely to write legibly, whether in cursive or print. Strange because I love to write in cursive and remember in school how much the kids liked mastering cursive writing and having their own unique cursive style as they progressed through their schooling years. I recall cursive writing as being a fun activity....but then I hate most of the new technology that you love.

The fact is, before computers, students were expected to write their assignments in cursive all the way through high school. Teachers widely refused to accept print. But today, high school students are expected to deliver their writing assignments in type. Cursive is disparaged as old fashioned just as all victims of new technology is branded as old and outdated. Kids today have the attitude that since they don't need cursive they don't think it is that important, again another mindset that technology brings when it takes over.

Uh, yes I know the irony that this is writing in print and not cursive. No need to tell me, but if you do, would you write it in cursive.