For decades, learning how to write in cursive served as a rite of passage for schoolchildren. Hunched over their desks, awkwardly clutching freshly sharpened pencils in their fists, students copied the graceful, swirling letters from the chalkboard onto a large sheet of lined tablet paper. Their first attempts were wobbly and uncertain, but over time, the children developed confidence as their skills grew. Beautiful handwriting became a source of pride because it showed a child had mastered the very adult skill of penmanship.
As new technology finds its way into homes and classrooms, suddenly handwriting doesn’t seem as important anymore. The paper tablets so many of us remember from childhood have fallen by the wayside, replaced by tablets of the digital variety. With more demands than ever for the attention of students and teachers in the classroom, subjects like cursive writing are seen as old-fashioned, and have been squeezed out of many schools. With such rapid advances in technology creating new ways to communicate, is handwriting still a necessity for daily life in the 21st century?
Cursive is considered crucial by Jan Z. Olsen, founder and developer of Handwriting Without Tears®, a curriculum that teaches handwriting to children. “The difference between typing and handwriting is that writing engages more parts of the brain,” she says. “When we type, it becomes an almost unconscious act. We get into the rhythm of fingers on the keyboard, and we are no longer thinking about what we are typing, only reproducing words onto the screen.”
Jan began her career as an occupational therapist more than 50 years ago, and over the decades she has seen just how important the connection between our hands and our brains truly is. “Performing the repetitive motions associated with writing creates an imprint on our muscles,” she explains. Just like repeating a fact in your head helps you remember it later, doing the same movements over and over will create a muscle memory. According to Olsen, muscle memory plays an active role in handwriting, much more so than typing with a keyboard. “When students take notes by hand during a lecture, the process of writing gives them better recall when they have to remember the information later on, say for a test,” she says.
In addition to working the muscles, taking notes by hand is an excellent opportunity for children to exercise and develop their budding reasoning skills. “Writing encourages children to be active deciders,” says Olsen. “They consciously have to ask themselves, ‘What is important enough for me to write down?’ ‘What do I want to remember later?’” Such questions mean children are constantly interacting with the material. They are fully engaged and thinking about what they are hearing, seeing, and learning.
Writing information down is great for remembering facts and dates, but the manner in which a student writes is also important. Sloppy, illegible notes a student can’t decipher when studying for a test are almost useless. In Olsen’s experience, kids who have neatly organized handwriting also tend to have neatly organized notebooks and homework assignments. She points out that being able to organize thoughts and preserve them for future use helps to streamline study habits and makes test preparation easier.
There is no magic age for when kids should begin learning handwriting. However, Olsen advocates starting the process as soon as possible. The development of fine motor skills, such as the ability for tiny fingers to pinch a Cheerio or a raisin during snack time, signals the child is ready to tackle learning the basics of how to write.
Introducing a regular-sized pencil right away could be too much too soon, because children will most likely use their fists to grasp the instrument. Rather than overwhelming them with a pencil that is too large for their little hands, providing small pieces of chalk or crayon allows children to use the pinching motion they perfected with Cheerios and raisins, translating a skill they already know onto a new task. (But be sure to watch children closely so those little pieces don’t go straight into their mouths!)
Olsen recommends teaching children how to print capital letters first, and then lowercase. Once children are confident with printing each letter of the alphabet, she advises parents and teachers move on to cursive writing. For most students, introducing them to cursive writing at the end of second grade is ideal.
While all children can benefit from better penmanship, the multisensory experience of handwriting can also be a tremendous advantage for children with special needs. The texture of the paper, the feel of the pen between their fingers, and the smell of ink are all tangible reminders that help keep them focused on the task at hand. An ability to write well and put their thoughts down on paper could also help with classwork. Olsen has worked with numerous students with special needs and has found joy in teaching them how to write.
“Paper and pencil are great equalizers,” says Olsen. “No matter who you are or where you are, you can write. Writing is a functional skill that can still be done when there is no electricity, computers, or Internet access. While technology allows us to do so many things and is certainly a blessing, knowing how to write by hand can still be a life-changing skill.”
