Juliana Scott

English teacher Stephanie Perluss writes ‘Why cursive is important’ in cursive. The process of cursive writing involves fine coordination of hand movements when producing the shape of each letter.

Elementary schools have taught cursive for years, but schools stopped teaching cursive because of the rise of technology and computer use in schools. According to a research article by History Facts, cursive was omitted from education standards in 2010 when the Common Core education standards, which are K-12 learning benchmarks for English and math, were released. Forty-one states agreed on these standards and typing was prioritized over writing.

While typing may be easier and faster for some people, handwriting can improve spelling accuracy and memory. According to, The Importance of Cursive, a research article by the National Library of Medicine, certain areas in the brain are activated when looking at handwritten letters and are related to sensorimotor components, which are nerves involving sensory and motor functions.

According to an article by NEA Today, which is a news source for people in public education, writing notes by hand has higher levels of electrical activity, which is the communication between neurons in the brain using electrical impulses, and it improves sensory processing and memory.

English teacher Thomas Hyun believes every student should learn cursive because it is a dying art form that people should know and handwriting is a strong aspect of personal growth.

“The reason why I think everybody should learn cursive is because they’re really adding another dimension to their life to really enrich their experience,” Hyun said.

Cursive can also aid learning disabilities like dyslexia, which is neurological and affects reading and spelling, and dysgraphia, which affects handwriting and grammar. According to a research article, cursive writing can help dyslexics distinguish between letters they easily confuse, like “b” and “d,” or “p” and“q.”

While cursive is important to know, there are also many benefits of typing on a computer. According to a research article by the National Library of Medicine, typing relies on distinct motor processes, which involve the brain’s control of movement, like procedural memory, which is a type of long-term memory that allows people to perform skills automatically, without any thought. Typing is also less time-consuming than writing in cursive.

Without knowing cursive, we could lose most historical aspects, since most documents are in cursive. Cursive is also a type of art that people should know, and it can benefit in multiple ways.