Kids Can't Read Grandma's Recipe Because It's In Cursive (2024)

FAQs

Is it normal to not be able to read cursive? ›

Today, more and more children and adults — with and without disabilities — cannot read cursive handwriting, even when it is perfectly formed. In the USA, Canada, and India, for instance, non-readers of cursive include most people born after 1985 (in other words, most people 35 and under).

Chicago — Three years ago, the Common Core Standards (CCS), a set of academic standards taken up by several states across the country, began omitting cursive instruction. That means that since then, some Gen Z have never been taught to read or write in the form of handwriting.

According to Zecher, students with dyslexia have difficulty learning to read because their brains associate sounds and letter combinations inefficiently. But cursive can help them with the decoding process because it integrates hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and other brain and memory functions.

Modesto City Schools Superintendent Sara Noguchi said one reason students should know cursive is to more easily read primary sources and historical documents that were written that way. Cognitive science research also suggests that learning cursive can boost brain power.

Many children and adults find it especially difficult to read cursive writing. One problem is that the shapes of cursive letters are often inconsistent from word to word, in ways that can make words very hard to recognize.

Designers value script and states are reinstating cursive's education, yet Gen-Z can't read it and brands are straying from it.

Over time, the emphasis on using cursive declined slowly, and was later impacted by other technologies such as the phone, computer, and keyboard. Cursive has been in decline throughout the 21st century because it is no longer perceived as necessary.

This anti-cursive trend was reinforced in 2010 when many states adopted the influential Common Core learning standards, which had dropped cursive entirely. Under the Common Core framework, states had limited flexibility to teach any skill that fell outside that curriculum. So many chose not to require cursive.

Cursive was historically associated with good character and virtue—it was widely taught in the 19th century as “a Christian ideal... occasionally credited with disciplining the mind.” But that was the high point, and the use of cursive declined throughout the 20th century as people shifted to typewriters—the first mass ...

Can autistic people read cursive? ›

Handwriting matters. Even those who never write must decipher others' handwriting (many of us autistics never managed to read cursive: even if drilled intensively in copying it).

For some pupils with dyslexia and/or dyspraxia the difficulties associated with handwriting can mean that the only way that they can achieve the speed of writing needed for success in the education system is to use a computer. If this is the case then learning to touch type will be beneficial.

Cursive helps you retain more information.

When we write, we have to be more selective and the brain has to process information to decide what's important enough to write down. That level of brain engagement tends to make information “stick” rather than just pass through our typing fingers.

That's why at least seven states — California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah — have moved to keep the cursive requirement.

A teacher named Platt Rogers Spencer developed a new form of penmanship around the mid-1800s.

Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder and learning disability that concerns impairments in written expression, which affects the ability to write, primarily handwriting, but also coherence.

Handwriting involves many aspects of movement — from forming letters to positioning the body and applying the right amount of pressure. That's why messy handwriting is often caused by poor motor (movement) skills, like fine motor skills.

Proper cursive instruction is no longer necessary. Cursive is more than just a way to write. It strengthens the cross hemi-sphere connections in the brain. Helps students later with problem solving and abstract thinking.