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
