Has cursive gone the way of quills and parchment?

 

Has cursive gone the way of quills and parchment?

From Psychology Today

Accprdomg to Ed Week  only 21 states require the teaching of cursive. EdWeek link 

While some say cursive belongs in the past, research says otherwise. 

The purpose of this article is to explore the reasons why cursive is an important element in learning and to provide one method for the teaching of cursive..

William R. Klemm Ph.D discusses.Cursive and Cognitive Development in Psychology today.  Following is a quote from this article.

Handwriting dynamically engages widespread areas of both cerebral hemispheres. Virginia Berninger, a researcher and professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says that brain scauring handwriting show activation of  massive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory.

Writing Beats Typing discusses current research and explains in detail the reasons, though inconvienent, for teaching cursive. 

Whether working with one student or a class of 35, teaching cursive can be a multisensory activity rather than a chore. The following method for teaching cursive has been successful in  general  and special education classes.  The sample below demonstrates the method.  To access the  entire  lower case alphabet and sample writing paper, please follow the link below.

Teaching Cursive

Preparation

Draw two sets of solid, parallel lines about five feet long on the board
approximately 24 inches apart. Draw a dotted line midway between the
solid lines (approximately twelve (12) inches above the bottom lines).

Supply Students with lined writing paper..  Follow the air tracing process included in the Teaching Cursive lesson.

Note: Use this line formation for all letter and word demonstrations for as long
as required. When the students understand the concept of the dotted line
and can write correctly on their papers, the use of lined paper can be eliminated.