Will Cursive Handwriting Disappear?

Do You Even Cursive? Does Anyone Else?

How many of us use cursive handwriting in our day-to-day lives?
Not the scribbled mess we create while signing our name, not that chicken scratch your Dr. is famous for, but real legitimate cursive that other people can read.
The kind of cursive we learned in school, seen in this worksheet here:

I type most of my words, and have recently started using speech-to-text on my phone. If pens and paper absolutely have to meet, I typically use a personal hybrid of print and cursive, with a splash of old school graffiti thrown in. I’ve seen plenty of styles of handwriting in my time, and noticed many different hybrids similar to mine, but I rarely see the traditional letters we were all taught in school. If things keep going the way they are, cursive handwriting may retire next to the VCR and cassette if we don’t keep it alive.

So… what compelled me to write about something I don’t even use?
I read an angry status update from a friend of mine on Facebook. He was upset that his son came home from school and told him he would not be learning how to write in cursive. Some schools are simply not teaching cursive handwriting. This was something I had heard about but never researched so I thought I’d check it out, and just for fun I thought I’d try my first legit attempt at cursive in probably 10 years. Something easy I’ve already done a few thousand times, my name, that should go well. More on that later…

Proof of Cursive Disappearing

Researching this topic was rather easy, there are countless pages online about cursive disappearing from our schools. Writers from trusted sources like The Washington Post, California Teachers Association, The NY Times, ABC News, and The Huffington Post have all weighed in on the topic. The biggest reason cursive is going away is that the Common Core State Standards, a national standard that American schools are adopting, does not require it. No one knows what the future holds, will there be a place for cursive handwriting outside of museums in the future, or will it just go away completely?

Technology is advancing faster than ever, as is the way we consume and use media and mobile devices. Many leading websites are skipping text in favor of videos and vlogs. You know, because who has time for all those words? Mobile apps can do things we never thought possible, and they are only getting better. Imagine kids and adults of the future waving apps in front of the Declaration of Independence to read the most famous signature of all time.
Will people of the future even know what it means when someone asks them for their John Hancock?

Cursive handwriting will probably eventually vanish, but I doubt we will see that happen in our lifetime. Unless there is public backlash and a return to the old way of doing things, my guess is another 2 or 3 generations and it will be abandoned completely.

Cursive Writing: An Endangered Art, from the Associated Press:

Quick pro tip: If a trade show or networking event is in your future, skip the sign-up sheet and create a spreadsheet or a document for collecting emails. You won’t be able to read everyone’s handwriting on a sign-up sheet.

So what are your thoughts? Is this another old relic that will go away? Do we need to preserve it? Are there any benefits to keeping cursive alive? Comment below.

I though it would be fun to collect signatures for this blog post, check out some real and honest attempts at cursive from the digital leaning staff here at Chatter Buzz Media.  Some of us are lucky that banks accept these!