Across the country, schools are doing away with cursive instruction
Last week, Susan Elson started teaching cursive to her third-grade students at Cottonwood Elementary, in Fernley, Nevada. It is a skill she teaches every year because she considers it to be important. "It just makes the brain and the hand work together," she told TFK.
Across the country, schools are doing away with cursive instruction. Some experts say that, thanks to new technology, cursive is no longer important. They believe that classroom time would be better spent on other skills, such as reading, math and even keyboarding.
Elson disagrees with the change. "I think it's a misstep," she says. "How are children going to sign their names, read someone else's cursive or read old documents that are important?"
Plus, she says, teaching cursive does not take much time. Elson spends just 15 minutes a day on the skill. "Some of my kids are doing everything in cursive by the time they walk out my door at the end of third grade."
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