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Blog article by Ruth Miskin

What is cursive handwriting?

‘Cursive’ or ‘joined-up’ handwriting is any style of writing where letters are joined to make writing faster.

Formal cursive joins all letters with strokes leading to and from each letter. Children are usually taught to join letters from the beginning.

Casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. Children are taught individual letters with correct formation, orientation and the correct size relative to one another before learning to join letters.

See full article on ruthmiskin.com

It’s important to teach children how to write – especially in a keyboard world. Article in Gulf News.

Do children in a keyboard world need to learn old-fashioned handwriting There is a tendency to dismiss handwriting as a nonessential skill, even though researchers have warned that learning to write may be the key to, well, learning to write. Read article in the New York Times.

Handwriting, according to some, is an anachronism.

Finland has now dropped it from its national curriculum. And so many American states have also removed it as an educational requirement that it now only makes news when state officials opt to keep it.

Read article and listen to podcast on RN’s Future Tense

Children in Germany’s schools are having a tough time with their handwriting, a new study reveals. But how important is writing as a skill for students, who will have to find jobs in a digital world? Read article on dw.com

The Expert Meeting at the Schreibmotorik Institut e.V. in Heroldsberg, Germany, “What is Good Handwriting?” was successfully held on February 2014. This Expert Meeting offered the international dialogue with scientists, specialists and practitioners, who discussed the scientific foundations for learning to write, its complexity and the role of writing motor skills. As a result of this kick-off event with leading researchers in the field of handwriting skills, the Schreibmotorik Institut e.V. decided to establish an annual International Symposium on Handwriting Skills. Learn more

Cursive handwriting will be scrapped from the Finnish education curriculum and replaced by lessons in keyboard typing, it has been announced. Read article in the Independent.

Finnish students will no longer be taught handwriting at school, with typing lessons taking its place, it’s reported.

Learning joined-up writing, often in fountain pen in the UK, is almost a rite of passage for primary school students. But Finland is moving into the digital age by ditching the ink in favour of keyboards, the Savon Sanomat newspaper reports. Read on BBC News.

Article by Harriet Green in The Guardian

There have been calls to phase out signatures. BBC News