# Does cursive really have cognitive benefits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383 "2013-07-01T18:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383/61 "2013-07-05T16:46:42Z")
> [@CC](#): > > If you want something to look at to explain the depressing state of affairs in many school, you only have to look at the effects of state and federal laws regarding education. Aggghhh - don’t get me started. I just look at the morons they let teach. I can’t believe the things that I have heard come out of teachers mouths. I’d be surprised if 1 out of 2 teachers could explain why we have seasons, two tides a day, or the difference between absence of gravity and being in free fall. I know one teacher who can’t spell simple words like “finish”, “cocoa”, and “menus” and another who thinks that there is a physical difference that prevents Japanese kids from pronouncing "R"s. For the most part, the larger the political entity the better things are run. Compare the Federal highway system with local roads, or the FBI to local police forces, or national Parks with State parks. It’s the states and local governments that are pushing creationism on kids. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383/62 "2013-07-05T17:08:00Z")
There’s at least two ways in which the American education system has completely screwed up the teaching of handwriting: 1. by instituting the D’Nealian script, which is just about the worst conceivable script as a matter of practicality as well as aesthetics. It’s difficult for children to master and it’s ucking fugly. 2. by diving up the idea of handwriting into “printing” and “cursive.” As the Europeans in this thread have testified, the way to do this is simply to teach “handwriting,” period. Best a simple and attractive italic script. Studies have shown that the “ball-and-stick” style printing taught in the United States itself makes learning difficult. Go straight to ovals and slanted lines. > [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > I was under the impression that several studies have shown that teaching cursive actually slows down students and handicaps them in other subjects because they’re thinking about _how_ to write instead of _what_ they’re writing. The professional writers I have heard who advocate writing by hand say that slowing you down is a feature, not a bug, of good writing. > [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > So, even if we accept those arguments as valid, fine, cursive is better than printing, but that doesn’t compare to typing. Someone who has received similar instruction in both cursive and typing will undoubtedly be significantly faster typing, which blows away any supposed stream-of-consciousness argument. And I also find typing to be a lot less fatiguing than hand-writing as well. The studies I know of contrast writing by hand with typing and find that learning, memory, etc., is much better with the former. > [@Norvaal](#): > > I am always amazed by the number of people who actually listen to NPR. Personally, _it bores me to death_ (not saying that people who listen to it are boring; in fact, most of them that I know are quite interesting.) And Dianne Rehm (bless her heart…) I listen to NPR practically every waking moment of my life. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > This is fascinating. One of the arguments I’ve heard in favor of teaching cursive is that it’s the original form of writing. That struck me as nonsense, but I’ve never been able to disprove it In Roman times, block capital letters were for carving. People wrote with this kind of script — [File:CursivasRomanas.png - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CursivasRomanas.png) > [@CC](#): > > I hope you’re not suggesting that we adopt such a bizarre practice. Public schools are essential parts of local communities. Everyone working from the same books across the country would be the antithesis of the one-size-fits-all scheme. It would be one-size-fits-hardly-anyone. > I’m not sure what you mean by this. What gets duplicated, and how is this a problem? Actually, the failure of the United States to nationalize educational standards has handicapped us economically, competitively, educationally, etc. The idea of setting standards for education at the easily corruptible and nearly always ignorant local level is idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383/63 "2013-07-05T17:37:12Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Actually, the failure of the United States to nationalize educational standards has handicapped us economically, competitively, educationally, etc. You’d have a hard time supporting this myth with anything other than, “they say.” Standards is not the problem. Otherwise, how did we rise to the top of the heap in the absence of them? If there’s a problem in schools, it’s not curriculum. It’s a matter of instruction and that’s primarily related to your other point: schools no longer hire the best college grads. First of all, women - the college grads who used to be the main component of the teaching workforce - can get much higher paying jobs almost anywhere else. Of course, the same is true for men, and now, if a man wants to become a teacher, he’s also burdened with the assumption that he’s some sort of pedophile. And schools of education do a terrible job of screening candidates for the profession. Applicants can get into many colleges of ed if they own matching socks. And once they’re in, they rarely get counseled out if they’re not good teaching material. So you have many poorly educated people getting jobs they’re not suited for, and many of them do it poorly. Add to that the ridiculous and oppressive mandates that take any initiative, creativity, and personal motivation out of the hands of teachers, (and who would even _want_ to be a teacher under today’s circumstances of lack of regard and lack of respect?) and you have a system that works fairly well in communities where there’s substantial wealth, but in the rest of the country it sucks. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383/64 "2013-07-05T19:23:38Z")
> [@CC](#): > > First of all, women - the college grads who used to be the main component of the teaching workforce - can get much higher paying jobs almost anywhere else. Of course, the same is true for men, and now, if a man wants to become a teacher, he’s also burdened with the assumption that he’s some sort of pedophile. …Add to that the ridiculous and oppressive mandates that take any initiative, creativity, and personal motivation out of the hands of teachers, (and who would even _want_ to be a teacher under today’s circumstances of lack of regard and lack of respect?) and you have a system that works fairly well in communities where there’s substantial wealth, but in the rest of the country it sucks. Your first point is what I think the major problem is, and the latter is the final nail in the coffin. Those people who are motivated enough to teach despite the mediocre pay are driven out by the mind numbing “system”. I don’t think that having standards, national or otherwise, precludes creativity and initiative, but there is something about our current educational system that removes any sort of judgement. The stupid zero-tolerance rules are a great example. A teenage girl giving her friend a Midol is not the same as selling dope in the hallway. Too me, a good standard for 4th grade might be something like knowing what the solar system is, that the sun is just another star, that the planets range in size, density and composition, that the furthest planet is much, much closer than the nearest star, the moon orbits earth (no nitpicking please), what causes tides, and what causes seasons. Instead we probably expect kids to memorize all the names of the planets, their closeness to the sun, and their size from smallest to biggest. But that is not the important stuff that lets one “understand” how things work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cursive-really-have-cognitive-benefits/662383.md?page=3)