Morgan Valeri

Ms. Michko

AP Language & Composition

Synthesis Essay on Cursive

While teaching cursive in elementary schools may be viewed as beneficial, technology

has the ability to take and minimize this particular writing style. Schools should teach students to

write in only print moving forward because of the rapid growth of technology, the percentage of

modern day writing (print), and its effect on students in the long run.

As elementary schools teach students to write in cursive in the present day, most students

will forget how to write in this style due to the amount of print handwriting that has flourished.

For example, one of the teachers has stated that “she’d rather move on and focus class time on

other topics” (Source A). As all of the teachers around the US may carry this mindset nowadays,

it is obvious that time to learn cursive is declining rapidly within our nation. If teachers do not

have the time to teach it, students will have more of the opportunity to develop modern day

penmanship skills in print. Connecting to the technology aspect, elementary schools focus their

writing time on the computer. Getting deeper into this, it is presented that “because they achieve

automatically quicker on the keyboard, today’s third graders may well become better writers as

handwriting takes up less of their education” (Source C). When students learn a certain skill from

a younger age, they will now obtain the ability to excel in it in the future. Even though they may

not learn actual cursive, they will still be able to write and understand print writing from a young

age. By teachers not forcing the priority of students learning cursive in their classrooms, this can

help advance students to succeed in other areas such as writing on the computer, and gives them

time to learn the skills of writing, not just how to learn the shape of letters.
Morgan Valeri

Ms. Michko

AP Language & Composition

Moving onto the communication aspect, it is safe to say that a majority of our

communication is typed out on a device or some sort of technology. So why are we teaching our

students a new writing style if the odds are they will most likely not even use it in their futures?

For instance, it is noted that “Just because you learned something in school doesn’t mean your

kids should” (Source E). As our world and society is clearly changing overtime, there becomes

less of a need for students to learn something that they won’t ever really use or experience.

Shifting back towards the significance technology has on writing nowadays, it can also be known

that a majority of students who learn cursive don’t even remember how to write it in the future.

For example, it is stated “The problem with cursive is I never use it. Surveys show most adults

feel the same way. Typing is faster, and print is enough when you need paper” (Source E).

Because a majority of adults even nowadays don’t use it, there wouldn't exactly be a reason to

teach it to younger students. Glancing at the survey in Source F, students are spending more of

their class time writing on paper. But what we don’t know from this survey, is the amount of

writing written in print, compared to the amount written in cursive.

Although much of society now believes that learning cursive nowadays in elementary

schools is such an unnecessary skill to be taught, it is equally important to recognize the benefits

of teaching cursive in the modern day. As cursive is known to have many positive outcomes, it is

spoken that “cursive writing identifies you as much as your physical features do. Script reveals

something unique and ineluctable about our inner being” (Source C). As cursive has the ability to

do this, it is significant that students around our nation can express themselves with different

writing styles. It can help and benefit students to write quicker, more efficiently, and can even

develop students positively in other areas of their young and growing brains. Looking at some of
Morgan Valeri

Ms. Michko

AP Language & Composition

the positive results from knowing cursive, it enhances “cognitive and motor development skills,

literacy and brain development, and memory” (Source D). As all of the positive aspects can

definitely grow, change and develop a student’s mind, learning both cursive and print can help

benefit others in the long run. As more than 41 states in the US are not required to teach cursive,

there should certainly still be room to learn and practice this skill both inside and outside of the

classroom due to all of its positive outcomes for individuals.

Taking into account that some may believe we should still teach cursive within our school

system, it can now be seen that it is realistically not a necessity. Because so much of our

generation is exposed to technology, cursive becomes less and less relevant as time moves on. Of

course, we may need to learn to read and understand historical documents that are in cursive, but

why spend so much time teaching an entire curriculum on it if a majority of students will forget,

and would rather use print?