Is Cursive Writing Losing Its Value in Today's Digital Age?

With the advent of digital communication, many schools have shifted their focus away from teaching cursive writing. This raises the question: how will people create unique signatures if they no longer learn cursive in school?

Despite this reduction in formal cursive instruction, the option remains for parents and educators to continue teaching it at home. Online resources and printable exercises can easily help children develop a cursive handwriting skill set. However, the necessity of cursive for creating a signature is more nuanced than it might appear.

Cursive vs. Signature: A Closer Look

Interestingly, the way signatures are formed does not necessarily require cursive. Many people who do not practice cursive in everyday writing still produce distinctive signatures. The style of a signature is often more about personal flair and individuality rather than strict penmanship techniques. In fact, a signature that is joined-up can sometimes be less uniquely you because it adheres to a very set style.

The process of creating a signature does not demand the elegance and legibility traditionally associated with cursive. A signature can be either joined or unjoined, and it only needs to be distinct and reproducible. Whether someone chooses to write a signature in cursive or print does not affect its legal standing. As long as it can represent the signer's identity, any writing style is acceptable.

The Decline of Cursive Writing

The decline of cursive writing in schools can largely be attributed to the evolution of writing tools. Cursive was developed to accommodate the properties of quills and inkwells. Quills not only spread ink easily but also broke easily and were heavier than they appeared, making continuous pen movement advantageous. However, the invention of the ballpoint pen in the late 1880s rendered these properties largely obsolete. Modern writing no longer requires continuous pen motion, making cursive less practical.

Besides, the practicality of cursive is further diminished by its less legible nature and the effort required to use it. Cursive is often described as slower, harder to write, and more formal than print. The curriculum of secondary schools sometimes needs to unteach cursive to students who have trouble writing it legibly.

Conclusion: Embracing Change

While it might be understandable to feel a sense of loss over the decline of cursive, it is important to recognize that handwriting styles, including cursive, are adaptable. The handwriting of cursive proponents is rarely found in everyday writing. This suggests that cursive is not a necessary skill for most people, and its place in modern education may be less about practicality and more about tradition or personal preference.

Let cursive go the way of dead languages and find its place alongside them. It has no place in 21st-century education when digital communication increasingly dominates our day-to-day lives.