Cursive is making a comeback. Relegated in 2006 to an optional piece of learning in Ontario elementary schools, cursive writing is set to return as a mandatory part of the curriculum starting in September.
Anyone know what research the minister is referencing? The academic later quoted said there wasn’t much research. I also wonder what was the basis for dropping cursive… The article appears to be just a bunch of cheering with little substance or context.
Personally I just dislike cursive and always have. Other people’s cursive writing is a pain in the he ass to read much of the time. The speed benefit is crushed by legibility issues. Doing a lot of genealogy research for example really underscores this, when most documents were hand written in cursive. .Yeah, great I can read cursive, but it is so often tedious and painful to decipher. There is a reason many forms came to say “print clearly”. Just my opinion and experience.
Not a super big deal either way, but so far I’m glad my kids didn’t have to bother with cursive. Artist, musician and computer programmer. Bilingual. Cursive-free!
There have been a number of studies (one, two, three) that show that writing notes by hand is better for memory retention than typing. Some of the studies have used only handwriting vs typing, some are writing on paper vs typing, and some try to use a tablet or smartphone as the digital alternative (sometimes with a stylus).
When I’m hand printing, it’s much slower than hand writing. My normal scrawl is an awful hybrid of the two that only I can read, but it’s what I used through university. I don’t think I could have kept up with lectures if I was printing, and the research is seemingly in favour of paper instead of digital. Handwriting helped me if only because it gave me a method of writing quickly.
That said, if Leece was actually referring to this research, he’d be able to defend his position pretty easily. Given all the handwaviness, it’s probably just another way to cut funding from schools and he just make up a reason that happened to match some studies.
It’s Lecce. Don’t expect anything resembling reality outta that guy.
As for cursive itself the only positives I’ve seen mentioned in research and in anecdotal conversations is that physically writing information down helps with memory retention as opposed to typing it out on a keyboard. Although I’d imagine the same could be said about simply printing it out by hand.
It’ll be interesting to see what style they introduce in this new curriculum. Looking at examples online my style fits mostly with the Zaner-Bloser method.
Also, in this day and age where we write 95%+ using a keyboard, I find that advocating a speed benefit when writing by hand is pretty pointless.
My daughter had learning disability, and having to learn to write 2 different alphabet (cursive and not) would have been. A pain… One was enough
It’s funny. I’ve had discussions with a lot of bitter people who complain about having been forced to learn cursive. I luckily really enjoyed calligraphy and cursive. It remains important in my field of work (STEM) to a certain extent.
At the end of the day, I view cursive as a positive for many reasons: it is artistic, it teaches fine motor control, and despite changes in the way we work, handwriting remains important and useful in many areas of work.
I see it the same way I see the importance of sketching and visualising. I expect most learned people to be able to take a pen and sketch or illustrate when needed. Cursive is just a vehicle for similar skills.
Of course it needs to be balanced with the teaching of other subjects, but I do not think that school is lacking of time to teach subjects. There is plenty of time during childhood to learn skills. This is one such skill.
I tend to agree. And honestly I don’t remember it taking much time to learn either.
That seems very silly…
When I went to school we started the year already behind schedule in math, and science. Maybe we could be spending our childrens time a little more wisely.
we learned when i was a kid and NEVER used it at all. I was so stressed out trying to learn it. I already had difficulty printing then they wanted me to learn cursive so i did and then never used it even once.
Teach keyboarding instead, will be a lot more useful.
Why not both?
In most professions; typing is a needed skill, while cursive isn’t.
Have to agree here.
The shocking piece of this news story for me was that it was ever made optional in the first place! Crazy to think a large portion of some ~17 years of students don’t know how to read or write it!
I mean the argument of practicality can still be made though, When was the last time you had to read or write cursive? Really just for your signature at this point.
What advantages does cursive grant in this age?
because it pointless today.
I’ve noticed that cursive writing is more common amongst French-Canadians. I think it’s because their education system is more European compared to the Anglo-Canadian one.
Oh, great. This will come in clutch when you get sent back in time and have to write Aunt Tilly from the front line of the Boer War.
Seems like a fair thing to teach considering students will be writing exams by hand most of their lives. Sucks that they just threw curriculum changes so last minute at the teachers without much support.
students will be writing exams by hand most of their lives.
All my exams were done on computers, many years ago.
That’s very lucky. I had to write my computer science exams (and all other courses) on paper for undergrad and i graduated in 2019. I don’t think that’s a thing in Ontario universities unless you have some sort of disability accommodation.
That’s crazy and silly
I’m sort of confused by this: the point of cursive was to make it more efficient to write quickly, without lifting pen from paper and causing blotting.
In a very “medium is the message” way, it’s tied to the pen. In an era of pencils and pens that don’t blot (and this little thing called a “keyboard”) it really is kind of an anachronism.
I also want to see what “research” Minister Leece is referencing. They aren’t extending the school day. Those three or four hours of cursive per week will be taken from some other topics in the curriculum (e.g. coding, which some teachers find challenging). Furthermore, this opens the door for the Ministry to back other archaic skills that might poll well with voters, but serve no actual academic purpose.