Has Cursive Writing Gone Out of Style?

As my oldest started the second half of 5th grade, I finally realized that his handwriting consisted of block letters. When I asked him to sign his name for his mother’s Valentine’s Day Card, he printed his name. I said sign and he replied that he had done so. As it turns out, my son’s school no longer teaches cursive writing, citing there is no time in the syllabus.

Part of the justification is our primary means of written correspondence is now in some form of electronic medium: e-mail, text messaging, and instant messaging, etc. Even writing checks has gone digital. The need for a “payroll signature” is almost exclusively limited to signing the back of our credit cards and driver licenses.

During my active duty career in the Marine Corps, when deployed, mail call was the highlight of the day when you received a letter from home. Turnaround time for communication was measured in days not seconds as it is today. Maybe back then we took care of what we said in a letter and did so in our best handwriting because we knew what it meant to open that handwritten letter from a loved one.

So with almost all of our communications going digital, do we still need cursive writing skills?

Let me know what you think.