This New Year brings a fresh start for 2.6 million primary and middle school students in California, as cursivehandwriting becomes a mandatory subject under Assembly Bill 446 passed last October. This change mirrors similar requirements already in place in 21 other states.
Neurological experts confirm that practicing cursive writing enhances children’s learning abilities and reading comprehension far better than keyboard typing or writing on tablets. Writing in cursive demands extra focus and awareness, resulting in beautifully legible writing that enhances longterm memory, particularly beneficial for children with learning difficulties.
Despite concerns from some academics that teaching cursive is a waste of time, research indicates that those who take handwritten notes, rather than typing, better understand and memorize lessons. This is because they must listen attentively and select only the main ideas to note down.
In today’s fast-paced digital age, training oneself to do things more slowly and pay attention to daily life is the fastest way to cultivate a focused mind. And when your little ones are already learning to write by hand, choosing a font that is more contemplative and teaching them to write more slowly is a strategy worth considering even more.
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