Cursive is a classical form of writing that is beautiful, smooth and more efficient to write, but it does have some issues.

Cursive is hardly ever used anymore, other than in signatures. In school, when teens have to peer review others’ papers, it can be very difficult to grade them when they are written in cursive because fewer and fewer students know how to write it, much less read it.

Also, it is harder to teach cursive in the beginning because first you have to teach students how to write in print and by the time they are good enough at that to learn cursive, they do not want to learn a whole new way of writing, especially when they are used to the normal way.

Children are actually supposed to know how to write some cursive by the end of third grade. As a child, I was taught how to write in print and cursive at the same time while I was in my daycare programs. They wanted to do what they could to teach me, but it was a bad idea to learn both of these at the same time. I mixed up printing and cursive, plus my writing was sloppy and unreadable. It was very difficult and confusing to try and learn both at the same time. I learned how to write proper English and cursive over time, but I hardly ever use it, so it was basically a waste of my time.

Cursive does have its pros, however.

“It’s a necessity; it teaches hand-eye coordination,” says Haley Colgate, a junior from Ogden High. “If you can’t read cursive then you can’t read a lot of people’s handwriting, and cursive is a lot faster than print and it looks prettier.”

Knowing how to write cursive can actually be pretty useful. Not only is it faster, which helps with taking notes, but it is helpful in reading people’s handwriting.

Joann Porter, a teacher at Uintah Elementary School, says, “I do believe cursive needs to be taught in school still. … I understand that in today’s world that most kids will most likely be using a keyboard of some sort but I do think that students also need to be able to write and read cursive.”

Although I feel like cursive is not needed, I also want it to stay. My reasoning for this is that cursive writing is a tradition. It is an old form of writing and culture that I want to keep.

Knowing cursive does help with hand-eye coordination and it is a good talent to have. It would also be a shame if, in the near future, we couldn’t read old historic texts written in cursive. This form of handwriting is a useful technique and tool to know. Cursive gives writing a better personality and is a unique and classical font that never gets old. Cursive is a good skill that may seem useless for the most part, but can actually be a very useful talent to have.

I like knowing how to write and read cursive, but I still do not think it was worth all the trouble I was put through to learn it. If there was an easier way to teach it, and it didn’t take up a lot of school time that could be spent on more useful subjects, then I would definitely want to keep teaching cursive writing.

In the end, I believe cursive should still be taught because it can be useful and it is a tradition that should be kept alive. Even though there is a lot of hassle to learn cursive, if we can at least teach the basics of it, then that would be good enough for me.

Jordan Cimenski is a junior at Bonneville High School. She enjoys writing, listening and learning music. Contact her at Jordancimenski@comcast.net.