More on Cursive Writing (Or, Are There Better Uses of Instructional Time?)

Last week, I wrote about the emphasis on cursive writing in my son's third-grade classroom.

An article on that subject appears in today's Education Week.  (Unfortunately, as many dear readers pointed out last week, you must subscribe to Ed Week to get the entire text.  If you would like the entire article,  or any others from that periodical, I can email them to you...)

The article includes arguments FOR continued emphasis on cursive, but it comes mostly from, uh, Zaner-Bloser, the company that publishes most of this country's penmanship curriculum!!! The other pro-cursives are the teachers who insist 

In the age of computers, I just tell the children, what if we are on an island and don't have electricity? One of the ways we communicate is through writing...

Here's a more thoughtful analysis of the issue from that article:

[Vanderbilt University professor] Graham argues that fears over the decline of handwriting in general and cursive in particular are distractions from the goal of improving students' overall writing skills. The important thing is to have students proficient enough to focus on their ideas and the composition of their writing rather than how they form the letters. (Itals, mine.)

Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 26 percent of 12th graders lack basic proficiency in writing, while two percent were sufficiently skilled writers to be classified as "advanced. "

"Handwriting is really the tail wagging the dog," Graham said.

Besides, it isn't as if all those adults who learned cursive years ago are doing their writing with the fluent grace of John Hancock.

Most people peak in terms of legibility in 4th grade, Graham said, and Wright said it's common for adults to write in a cursive-print hybrid.