With the rise of technology replacing traditional pens and paper in classrooms, cursive has become, for many students, as unfamiliar as Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Although many schools have removed cursive from their curriculum, the artform is gradually making a comeback as numerous institutions are reversing course.

Part of this resurgence could be linked to a viral social media post in which a teacher criticized a seven-year-old girl for using “loopy connected letters” to sign her “John Hancock” on an assignment. Keep reading to discover more about this student and why cursive is being reintroduced in schools!

Previous studies indicate that handwriting enhances spelling accuracy, memory retention, and conceptual understanding.

In fact, researchers explain that the deliberate process of forming letters and words boosts brain activity, providing individuals with more time to process and learn.

“There is a fundamental difference in brain organization for handwriting as opposed to typing,” says Ramesh Balasubramaniam, a neuroscientist at the University of California. “Even when the movements are very similar, the activation seems much, much higher in handwriting. It shows that there’s more involvement of these brain regions when you’re handwriting, which might give you some specific advantages.”

Boosts brain acitivity

As technology continues to advance, our reliance on it increases, but experts emphasize that handwriting should not be forgotten in the digital era.

“[Schools] need to bring in more writing into curriculum design,” says Balasubramaniam.

Supporting this view, a recent study titled “Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom” reveals that handwriting, compared to swiping or typing on devices, enhances brain connectivity, particularly in areas related to learning and memory.

Audrey van der Meer, one of the lead authors of the 2024 study, explains, “When writing by hand, most of the brain is active.”

Van der Meer, a neuropsychology professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, adds that handwriting “puts the brain in a state that helps both children and adults learn more and remember better… Typing, on the other hand, requires mechanical and repetitive movements that trade awareness for speed.”

In conclusion, the study suggests that “the ongoing substitution of handwriting by typewriting in almost every educational setting may seem somewhat misguided as it could affect the learning process in a negative way.”

Functional illiteracy

In 2010, several states made a “misguided” decision to adopt the Common Core standards initiative, which does not require students to learn cursive writing.

Sadly, removing cursive penmanship from education is contributing to functional illiteracy across the U.S., where “hard-to-read handwriting” is creating challenges for adults performing basic tasks.