Photo: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post.
Cursive club at Holmes Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, has been surprisingly popular. Halle O’Brien, 12, has taken cursive back to her regular classroom.
Many adults have forgotten the cursive writing they learned in school. They felt no need to keep it going when it felt easier just to print or type. Nowadays, those of us who help out with PostcardsToVoters are told to print the messages because so many people don’t read cursive.
Today’s story is about kids who think learning cursive is a hoot. It also suggests how writing in script is good for the brain.
Karina Elwood writes at the Washington Post, “The group of preteens uncapped their markers and began practicing how to capitalize two new letters: ‘B’ and ‘Q.’ The lesson felt like a return to the basics. Only this time, the middle-schoolers were learning to write, many for the first time, in cursive.
“Sherisse Kenerson, a multilingual teacher at Holmes Middle Schoolin Alexandria, Virginia, leads a club of sixth- through eighth-graders who want to know the art of looping and curving their letters together.
“The attention her small club has attracted surprised Kenerson. Local news stories, thousands of social media comments. Teachers from as far as Oklahoma asking how they could bring something similar to their classrooms.
“If boomers and Gen X are puzzled that many youngsters are not required to endure the same painstaking labor of mastering cursive that they were, they might be even more surprised — perhaps, even delighted — to hear that some are learning the craft entirely for fun. …
“In the early 2000s, as technology picked up, cursive was declared all but dead. By 2006, only 15 percent of SAT essays were written in cursive. The Common Core standards released in 2010 did not include cursive as a required curriculum, leading to states around the country to drop the requirement.
“But in the years since, there has been a steady effort to preserve the art by historians and educators like Kenerson. Clubs, camps and optional classes like hers have popped up around the country. …
“Research suggests handwriting is a key tool for learning and memory. It activates brain activity like motor, sensory and cognitive processing better than typing does.
“ ‘Even in the age of technology, I think that handwriting is here to stay,’ said Shawn Datchuk, a professor of special education at the University of Iowa who has written about the benefits of handwriting for teaching literacy. …
“Datchuk said he suspects research about the cognitive benefits of handwriting, paired with the affordability of teaching it, are key drivers behind the resurgence. But another factor could be how personal and emotionally resonant cursive is, especially for older generations. …
“[Datchuk said,] ‘It really becomes kind of a thumbprint or fingerprint of our entire development.’
“That’s the appeal to Kenerson, who launched the cursive club four years ago when her students couldn’t read a word she had written in flowing script on the whiteboard. In her after-school program, she reminds students that cursive is personal. It’s their own handwriting and can have its own flair.
“Halle O’Brien, 12, had never learned cursive before the club. Her grandfather, who was set on helping her improve her handwriting, had tried to teach it to her, but she found it too hard, she said.
“But something about cursive club just clicked. She finds herself writing in the script for class assignments. It’s easier for her than printing. It’s quicker than typing.
“ ‘People who know cursive can read and can write it so smoothly without needing to concentrate on the letters,’ Halle said. …
“Halle sees practical value in her new skills beyond bragging rights to her friends. She recalled a history field trip where none of the students could read the Declaration of Independence.
“ ‘I tried to read it, but I had no idea how to do it,’ Halle said. ‘I actually heard some people doing cursive clubs so that they could learn how to read the Declaration.’
“The need for cursive readers led the National Archives to put out a call for volunteers to help transcribe historical documents and artifacts. …
“Datchuk said there are also links between writing in cursive and better spelling skills. You have to know how to spell a word entirely before writing it in cursive, he said. That was evident in Kenerson’s classroom. Before writing the word “spectacular” in cursive, Sarah Stephens, 11, carefully spelled it out in print at the top of her paper. …
“The sixth-grader came into the club ahead of some of her peers. She first learned cursive in second grade while enrolled in private school. There, she said, students were expected to write completely in cursive by fourth grade. The school even held an annual cursive competition. …
“For all of the benefits she sees in cursive, Kenerson guesses that students are drawn to the club for the same reason she was eager to learn cursive as a child: It made her finally feel grown up. …
“ ‘I think it empowers them, because they know that everyone cannot write it.’ ”
More at the Post, here.
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