A growing number of states are bringing back instruction in cursive writing, and for good reason: Evidence suggests it can improve students’ literacy skills.
Just this year, for instance, Kentucky passed a state law requiring students to become proficient in cursive writing by the end of fifth grade—and Iowa’s state education board added cursive writing to its list of educational requirements.
These measures bring the total number of states mandating the teaching of cursive writing in elementary schools to 24 as of July. That number could be even higher soon, as similar legislation is pending in Connecticut, Maine, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
Talking Out of School podcast : Why is a “small-language model” better for K12?
Cursive writing instruction largely disappeared over the last few decades as states focused their attention on improving reading and math skills, first in the era of No Child Left Behind and then as they adopted the Common Core standards. Now, however, cursive instruction is making a major comeback in schools from coast to coast.
What’s behind this resurgence, even as more students are using laptops and tablets to complete their work? There is mounting evidence to show that learning to form letters by hand leads to better spelling, thinking, reading, and writing skills—and the effects are more profound when students learn how to write in cursive.
Writing in cursive not only stimulates synapses in the brain related to learning; it also activates both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously, something that printing alone doesn’t do.
In one study published in January 2024, researchers in Norway compared the neurological effects of writing by hand with typing on a keyboard and found handwriting was associated with “far more elaborate” brain activity than keyboard writing.
“With handwriting, you have to form these intricate letters by making finely controlled hand and finger movements,” Audrey van der Meer, one of the study’s authors, told The New York Times. Each letter requires a different hand motion, she explained, and the act of forming a letter activates distinctive memories and brain pathways tied to what that letter represents—such as the sound it makes and the words that include it.
But when students type out their words, every letter is produced by the same simple finger movement, so they don’t derive this benefit. What’s more, the act of connecting letters together when students write in cursive helps them form powerful connections between these letters in their minds. It reinforces the idea that these letters are interconnected within the word and helps them develop automaticity and fluency in their reading and writing.
As Ohio State University Professor Mary Jo Fresch points out: “Students must think across the word they intend to write, so gaining fluency as they connect cursive letters supports metacognitive skills. By ‘picturing’ the word, students use their morphological knowledge in meaningful ways.”
Cursive writing was once seen as taking away valuable instructional time from subjects like math and literacy. Now, as we learn more about how the brain works, it appears the opposite is true. And with science-based programs that make cursive instruction fun for students and easy for schools to implement, students can learn and practice both handwriting and literacy skills at the same time with minimal prep time for teachers.
Teaching kids how to write in cursive again won’t just help them decipher their grandparents’ letters. It’s also a smart strategy for activating young students’ minds and improving their ability to read. And with achievement gaps only growing wider as a result of the pandemic, schools need all the help they can get in solving the literacy challenge.
