In defense of cursive

I still remember learning cursive in third grade. All of my teachers said we had to learn it because it would be required in middle school and high school.

I quickly learned that was a lie. Not only was cursive never even encouraged in middle school or high school, my teachers told us not to use it because our printing was illegible enough. Needless to say, cursive seemed relevant only to an older generation and necessary only to sign important documents or checks. Not until my senior year of college did I learn the necessity of cursive.

Cursive used to be necessary because it’s fast, or at least faster than print. Note-taking, however, seems to be a lost art form in middle school and high school. In the few classes that I had to take notes, the teachers waited until every student wrote down every bit of information. There was no fear of missing something. Someone would always complain that the teacher was going too fast. Looking back on my high school notes, there is no sloppy writing, everything is perfectly legible, and I even had time in between notes to draw some pretty flowers.

Believe it or not, when I got to college, note-taking became even easier. My schedule was packed with huge lectures–and you could bring your laptop! Besides this, teachers post all of their slides online.

I was in for a rude awakening during syllabus week this year. Most senior year classes are tiny lectures of no more than 40 people. And the professors hate laptops. It makes students look distracted (because we are).

So I had to start taking notes by hand. I tried printing for a while, but my notes looked sloppy. I was left with no choice but to fall back on the old cursive.

And that is why students are still learning cursive. We may not use it until the very end of our educational careers, but it eventually comes in handy. Plus, it takes years to perfect your signature. You have to start early–in third grade.

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