I often get impassioned notes from teachers about the value of teaching cursive in our schools. Here is a release from a Canadian university on its research showing that cursive writing improves learning.
From the University of Montreal:
By 2014, 45 American states will stop teaching cursive writing in favor of keyboard proficiency. In Québec, there are no plans for the moment to abandon this type of writing.
“Teaching and daily use of handwriting are essential, if only to avoid being at the mercy of technology,” says Professor Isabelle Montésinos-Gelet at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Education. Although she welcomes the idea of young people learning to handle a computer keyboard, she believes it should be introduced in the school curriculum when students are already proficient in one style of writing: print (separate letters) or cursive (joined letters).
“Here, as in many countries, the general approach to teaching writing is based on tradition rather than on educational research that has proven benefits,” says the professor.
For generations, most Québec students learn to print in the first grade and write cursive in the
