Teach Cursive You Lazy Assholes

Handwriting matters: does cursive? Legible cursive writing averages no faster than printed handwriting of equal/greater legibility. (Sources on request.) Speed/legibility studies find the fastest, clearest handwriters avoid cursive, joining only the most easily joined letters: with print-like letter-shapes when printed and cursive letters disagree.

Reading cursive can be taught in 30-60 minutes: even to five- or six-year-olds who print. Even a free iPad app, “Read Cursive,” teaches how: appstore.com/readcursive ) Why not teach cursive _reading_, along with handwriting that's typical of effective handwriters? Teaching material for such practical script abounds: especially in the UK/Europe, where this is taught at least as often as the accident-prone cursive too many North American educators still revere. Examples: BFHhandwriting.com, handwritingsuccess.com, briem.net, HandwritingThatWorks.com, italic-handwriting.org, studioarts.net/calligraphy/italic/curriculum.html

Educated adults are quitting cursive. In 2012, handwriting teachers across North America were surveyed at a conference run by cursive series publisher Zaner-Bloser. Only 37% wrote cursive; 8% printed. Most (55%) wrote with some elements resembling print-writing, others resembling cursive. For another survey, see poll.fm/4zac4 (with similar results).
Teaching that the adult world writes in cursive is like teaching that our president's Richard Nixon. Claims for cursive (when independently checked) prove to be misquoted/otherwise misrepresented by the claimant. What are the effects of trying to teach what students see is untrue?

About signatures: brace yourself. In state and federal law, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over other kinds. (Hard to believe? Ask any attorney!)
Questioned document examiners (specialists in identifying signatures, verifying documents, etc.) tell me the least forgeable signatures are the plainest. Most cursive signatures are loose scrawls: the rest are quite complicated: making a forger's life easy.

All handwriting, not just cursive, is individual: just as all handwriting uses fine motor skills. That's why any first-grade teacher immediately sees, from unsigned, print-written work, which of 25 or 30 students wrote it.

Pushing cursive to save handwriting is like pushing top hats and crinolines to save clothes.

Kate Gladstone
DIRECTOR, World Handwriting Contest
CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
HandwritingThatWorks.com

Yet another liberal "researcher" who has decided to remake our children based on her crackpot theories. Despite all of your "research", signatures are EXPECTED in cursive, and people who can not sign their name will be treated with suspicion when applying for a JOB, a LOAN, or even a BANK ACCOUNT. THEORY does not equal REALITY.

No, my signature isn’t cursive, and I have a job and a bank account (and have had loans). Your theory doesn’t equal reality.

You got me: I never learned cursive. I'm a US citizen but I was educated in England - my parents thought I'd be better off learning stuff that mattered like math and science.

So what now? Am I seriously not allowed a back account? Wait, I already have one... looks like someone didn't get your memo, there... looks like A LOT of people never got your memo; I got jobs, loans, rentals, a lot of stuff, never once learned cursive.

Hand writing evolves with time and cursive is needed. Period.