Evidence proves value in cursive writing
“The ability to read and write confidently and successfully is life changing,” says Chris Samis, superintendent of student achievement and special education at the Simcoe County Board of Education. “One of the things we’ve seen coming out of the pandemic is that the vast majority of students learn to read very well but there are some who struggle and we want to make sure we don’t miss anyone along the way.”
Updated curriculum guidelines for the province released last June include a new intentional focus on language fundamentals. Samis says that penmanship was once a highly word processing skills. While cursive writing has always been a part of the Ontario Language Curriculum, it has been elective for the past several years. The new guidelines call for students to learn printing in Grades 1 and 2 and cursive writing in Grade 3 with the addition of word processing in Grades 4-8.
Samis says there is evidence of the value of teaching students to print and write especially in the early stages of learning to read.
“Learning to write is shown to strengthen letter-sound connections, and to improve memory, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination,” he said.
There are studies comparing the effectiveness of handwritten notes to those taken on a computer, and while the students who took notes on a computer had more fulsome notes (probably because most people type faster than they write), the students who wrote notes by hand had better recall of the information. Samis says technology makes it possible to organize handwritten notes using a variety of different apps, and for students with disabilities that make handwriting too much of a chore, there are voice to text options that allow them to dictate notes.
The discussion is not about cursive versus word processing, according to Samis. “There is no drawback to teaching both. It is essential for some and good for all.”
The focus on reading, writing and math fundamentals is essential to develop critical learning skills and teach students to be independent.
Local libraries are doing their part to encourage development of writing skills in youth. Shannon Lougheed, a circulation clerk with Clearview Public Library is in charge of the cursive writing club. Each week, packages are distributed to branches in Creemore, Stayner and New Lowell. The kits include tracings of upper case and lower case letters and provide sample words to practice connections between letters. The club launched to coincide with the start of the school year and each week’s kit focuses on a new letter. This week features the letter D. Lougheed says the kits are designed for home study. “A few kids do come to the library to do the kits here and in Stayner we have a white board where they can practice on Saturday. Parents love the kits because they are great rainy day activities.”
The cursive writing kits are the latest of the library’s brain activities, which typically include sudoko, mazes and crossword puzzles. A recent fall scarecrow kit included a word search and instructions for building your own scarecrow. Last year, there was a kit containing instructions to crochet a piece of coral reef. Some of those creations are now on display at the Ontario Science Centre.
There is substantial evidence for this, and the article would be improved if it provided links to that evidence. There is also substantial evidence that smartphones are detrimental to the people’s mental health, especially that of adolescents. We keep talking about how much we care about the mental health of students, but the Board will not come out with a firm policy prohibiting their use, and abuse, in classrooms. Students in Germany may only take them out when a teacher instructs them to do so; students in parts of the U.K. must leave them in their lockers during class time. There is no educational value to them, as students have all kinds of access to chrome books, etc., when online resources are needed, and there is no benefit to tiktok, instagram, tumblr, facebook, and so on. Time for parents to insist that the Board develop a real policy that does not simply download the decisions to individual teachers, which only leads to all kinds of conflict and resistance.