SHOULD WE OR SHOULDN’T WE TEACH CURSIVE WRITING ANY MORE?

SHOULD WE OR SHOULDN’T WE TEACH CURSIVE WRITING ANY MORE?

What is the difference between a restaurant and a bistro? I am sure that to most of you the answer is obvious. In a restaurant, the menus is often printed in a mega-sized laminated folder with seemingly dozens of pages and in a bistro, the abbreviated menu is found on a blackboard on the wall written in cursive writing with coloured chalk. At least that is often my experience. Apparently, bistro owners are much more knowledgeable on the research into the format of menus!

A study by a professor of hospitality management in Ohio State University has concluded that menus that use fonts that appear handwritten can make you feel less lonely, so you are more likely to enjoy your dining experience. Her research also determined that diners were more likely to believe that a restaurant’s food was healthier, made of higher quality ingredients and prepared with more care than similar items printed in machine style fonts. She speculates that since society is becoming more automated and mechanized, the imperfect curves and strokes of cursive handwriting - whether computer generated of not - gives the impression of warmth and a human touch. Whether she is right or not, she has identified a potential problem for our future generations, that has me concerned. 

Today’s children and young adults are not familiar with cursive writing and can neither read it nor write using it! Many schools have adopted keyboarding as an alternative to cursive handwriting instruction and it has been removed from the mandatory curriculum in many provinces. It is believed to be outdated and therefore it is unnecessary to learn to write in the cursive style. Most students print all of their notes or compositions if they do not have immediate use of a computer. They are obviously headed down the road of gastronomic tragedy! How will they ever be able to read a menu in a bistro?

In fact, learning to write in cursive has been shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. Researchers claim that cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing. To say nothing of enhancing your dining pleasure in Bob’s Bacchanalian Bistro!

As a geezer, who used to have a regular class called Writing in my elementary school days, I remember with joy the repetitive practise of forming rows of carefully shaped circles and sticks, in preparation for writing the actual letters. Good penmanship was rewarded and it was a skill developed by all students, except for the future doctors who learned prescription writing instead. I don’t know if it is necessary to teach cursive writing any longer: it is just another skill that has become a lost art and mechanized technology just keeps marching on.

Before you answer Ken’s Kritical Kwestion at the top of this entry, you need to know that 99% of elementary and junior high kids would not be able to read the cursive clause in the last sentence!

PS  If they are under 30, they probably don’t know what a “clause” is either!