Learning cursive in the first grade helps students
Monday, September 16, 2013 - 08:00
in Mathematics & Economics
By 2014, 45 American states will stop teaching cursive writing in favour of keyboard proficiency. In Québec, there are no plans for the moment to abandon this type of writing. "Teaching and daily use of handwriting are essential, if only to avoid being at the mercy of technology," says Professor Isabelle Montésinos-Gelet at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Education. Although she welcomes the idea of young people learning to handle a computer keyboard, she believes it should be introduced in the school curriculum when students are already proficient in one style of writing: print (separate letters) or cursive (joined letters).