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Why Cursive Handwriting Deserves a Place in the Modern Classroom

Opinion

Business Honor
23 May, 2025

Education expert argues cursive boosts literacy, memory, and cognitive coordination in students.

Dr. Shawn Datchuk, associate professor of special education and director of the Iowa Reading Research Center, believes cursive handwriting still has a valuable role in K-12 education — and recent legislative trends suggest others are beginning to agree.

According to Dr. Datchuk, teaching cursive is more than a nostalgic throwback. “Cursive instruction engages multiple brain systems — memory, fine motor skills, and language — all at once,” he explains. At the Iowa Reading Research Center, Datchuk and his team are reviewing research that links handwriting instruction to stronger literacy development and reading comprehension.

Once widespread in American classrooms, cursive handwriting was sidelined after the 2010 adoption of the Common Core Standards, which emphasized digital literacy and omitted cursive as a required skill. But now, states like California, Iowa, and Oklahoma are reinstating cursive in the curriculum, with others such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey considering similar moves.

Datchuk points to studies showing cursive may improve spelling accuracy, writing fluency, and even storytelling ability. While much of the research to date focuses on print handwriting, early findings suggest cursive offers distinct cognitive benefits by requiring students to process words as fluid units rather than disconnected letters.

Beyond the academic impact, cursive remains socially and culturally significant. Students still encounter cursive in historical documents, personal letters, and legal signatures. In low-tech school environments, cursive also represents a cost-effective instructional tool compared to digital alternatives.

As reading scores among fourth graders remain low nationwide, cursive is being re-evaluated not as a luxury, but as a potentially powerful learning tool. According to Dr. Datchuk, “Students benefit when they can express ideas in more than one way — and cursive is part of that toolkit.”