"Writing is Playing the Violin; Keyboarding is Playing the Triangle"

Good News for Good Handwriters

It can make you smarter: "cursive writing has been shown to improve left-right brain synergy and even promote the brain's language and memory functions."

Not only that, but it's beautiful. I like writing on a keyboard. I can probably think and write more quickly on my computer than on a legal pad. But I wouldn't even consider typing a thank you or sympathy note and every card I write (including the several hundred Christmas cards I send) gets a personal note. If your children aren't learning cursive in school teach them at home. One of Ghandi's big regrets (He describes it in his autobiography) was never developing beautiful handwriting.

Keep cursive alive. Send a letter or card with a note in cursive today (unless you are writing to a first or second grade student).

Want Smart Kids? Teach Them Cursive Writing!

What's Lost as Handwriting Fades

Some salient points from the article. I've highlighted some major points in red:

Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters — but how....

A 2012 study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, lent support to that view. Children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer. They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.

Teach Your Kids Cursive, It's Good for their Minds

I recently noticed that the Washington Post held a handwriting contest for kids. Apparently, while the schools are abandoning penmanship making kids permanent slaves to block print, The Post sees some value to cursive writing. (Only the little ones were allowed to submit print samples.)

Personally, I wonder if this is part of the deliberate dumbing down of students. Studies show that those who write in cursive express more complex thoughts and show more complex sentence structure. So cursive is good for the SATS too.

Check it out here....