La Fin. The End of Cursive Writing...

Some children will look at the writing above one day and see it as a form of hieroglyphics, unable to identify (or write) the lowercase "s" and "r" for example. My friends, do you find this is as confounding and unsettling as I do?

A recent article in The Washington Post addressed the impending finale to the art of handwritten script in many US public schools, explaining how cursive is simply becoming irrelevant and impractical in the wake of limited time and budgets, evolving curricula and the widespread use of computers. Since it's no longer required instruction (by Common Core Standards), some schools have simply decided to not teach cursive writing - as basic and splendid and timeless and necessary as it is.

My husband was equally shocked as in France any curriculum decision is made by the Ministry of Education, and therefore something like this would quickly become a national debate, which is a good garde-fou (safeguard) against what he calls "absurdity." This makes me wonder if it's actually happening anywhere else in the world...

The good news is that there are districts and schools of educators who care deeply about preserving l'ecriture. Despite the arguments for its elimination, the benefits to learning and knowing how to read and write in cursive script are numerous: hand and eye control; learning to follow directions; internal discipline of the hand, brain and eye; continuity in process and focus, not to mention maintaining the beauty of the curves and flourishes of individual penmanship - just to name a few. How about children who want to become historians or doctors or as a fourth-grade teacher said to her students, “If you’re going to be a famous soccer player, you need a signature for autographs.” Why of course!