To the Editor:
I write regarding the Curriculum Matters blog post “Why Don’t the Common-Core Standards Include Cursive Writing?” (edweek.org, Oct. 10, 2016), which addresses the elimination of cursive writing from the common core.
I am a teaching artist. Drawing—the moving line—was our human communication millennia before a written language tradition. All of writing involves forming letter shapes, and when those shapes are joined, they become expressive with energy, emotion, and vitality.
We have 10 amazing tools at the ends of our arms for a reason: the articulate expression of our thoughts. My grandmother, who grew up in Czarist Russia, could only sign her name with an “X,” and I worry that our children are only one click away from this functional illiteracy. Please bring back cursive!
Betsy Glass
Pleasantville, N.Y.
