A Goodbye to Cursive Writing

I recently heard that cursive writing is no longer a requirement here in Kentucky.  As in, my kids may not be taught to write in cursive by our public school system. 

So.  Okay.  Wait.  What? 

The logic that was to be the end of cursive hand writing had something to do with a notion that no other countries learn to write in two forms like we do: print and cursive.  So, is that true?  Are we (the USA) the only folks on Earth who learn to write in two formats?  Apparently not.  According to Wikipedia, many countries have a cursive form of their written language. 

Hmmm, I find that fact very interesting, don't you?

Another argument for the demise of cursive writing is that everything is created in print.  But, that's simply not true.  Some of the most important documents in the United States are written in cursive.  If we no longer teach our children to write and read cursive, who will be left to read the Constitution and other documents created by the founders of our country?  What a sad future we have ahead of us.

Here are a few other interesting things I read as I researched this topic:

• Cursive is often believed to be faster than printing
• Cursive may be required to make legal documents official
• In many countries, children are FIRST taught to write and read in cursive

So, how many countries use the Roman Alphabet? According to the map on Wiki, most of the world uses the Roman Alphabet.  I'm going to make an educated guess that most countries learn, teach, and use both the print and cursive versions of the Roman Alphabet. Why would the USA want to be the only one to eliminate cursive?  It just makes zero sense. 

I think it's fair to say that we will be short-changing our children when cursive is fully eliminated from our classrooms.  Parents, we need to start paying attention to these things.  I can't speak for everyone, but I don't want my kids to be partially illiterate.  Eliminating cursive from our curriculum is a huge mistake.