Culture | Learning curves
SaveShare
Sep 17th 2026|4 min read
Listen to this story
Your browser does not support the element.
“BEWARE OF A man whose writing sways like a reed in the wind,” Confucius warned. The ancient philosopher would have been rather suspicious of many literary giants. Leo Tolstoy’s handwriting was messy with a severe slant, leaving his manuscripts as dense and intricate as his epics. Ernest Hemingway’s script sloped drunkenly down the page, no matter how little booze he had consumed.
This September, as pupils return to classrooms, the question of whether (and in which style) they should learn to write by hand is being debated by administrators, parents and teachers. You might assume such questions are obsolete in an age of iPads rather than parchment, but handwriting is not being written off. Cursive, a style with flowing, connected characters, is making a comeback.
America has looped back on loopy writing. In 2010 the country’s “Common Core” curriculum shunned cursive in favour of keyboard skills, but, since then, more than half of states have brought it back to the classroom. This school year Pennsylvania and New Jersey joined Texas, California, Florida and others in mandating the teaching of cursive in schools.
Other countries are underlining the importance of handwriting, too. Canadian and Argentine provinces have reinstated cursive or started teaching it at younger grades. In Britain, where cursive is taught around the age of seven, policymakers introduced a revamped “writing framework” in 2025 to improve handwriting instruction. Italy and Sweden are moving away from tablets and screens to use books and handwritten notes. In other places cursive has long been a coveted skill. In France educators often teach ornate cursive script; in Vietnam handwriting and calligraphy classes are surging in popularity.
Cursive suited the writing tools of the past. Scribes perfected pleasing penmanship so that documents were easy to read. Their quill lasted longer, and they got fewer ink blots, if they didn’t raise it from the page between letters. (Later, when metal tips and ballpoint pens became popular, simpler handwriting styles proliferated.) But now people have voice-dictation software and AI chatbots at their disposal. So why is cursive back in vogue?
Its return is supported by science. Lawmakers cite research about the benefits of handwriting on everything from memory to critical thinking and fine motor co-ordination. One oft-cited study by Audrey van der Meer, a neuroscientist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, compared the brain activity of children and young adults when they were writing in cursive, drawing and typing. She found that the brain is engaged “in a completely different way” when handwriting and drawing, with scans showing activity in areas associated with learning and memory. Other studies have shown that cursive has other benefits, including boosting reading skills and spelling.
Yet fewer studies have directly compared cursive (joined) and print (unjoined) handwriting styles. Some scholars are sceptical that cursive is much better than any other sort of handwriting: it seems unlikely that “writing letters in a particular script should make you cognitively more capable”, says Steve Graham, a professor at Arizona State University. Perhaps the best case for writing in cursive is speed: some studies have found that writing in unbroken loops makes for faster writing, though others suggest that the speediest method is to mix joined and unjoined letters.
Cursive’s comeback is also about culture. People fret that youngsters will not be able to decipher their ancestors’ writing or historical documents written in cursive. In America people point to the penmanship of the constitution and Declaration of Independence. Being able to read this style makes for “informed and engaged” citizens, the argument goes—though typed versions are available.
Through handwriting you can trace history. Most scripts taught in schools evolved from cursive styles in Italy, Germany, France and Britain. With colonialism, sloping English round hand spread to America and India; France’s decorative écriture ronde went to parts of South America and Asia. The Nazis even meddled with note-taking: in 1941 Adolf Hitler banned gothic-looking German cursive and instead ordered schoolchildren to write in a simpler Latin script. The reason for the ban, scholars reckon, was to make communication uniform and more legible for people in occupied Europe.
Today’s educators have more modern concerns. Some people calling for cursive suggest emphasising handwriting could make it harder for students to use AI to do their homework. Teachers are keen to ensure chatbots do not replace writing for children, says Professor Graham, because “writing involves thinking.” It helps youngsters (and adults) organise information and come up with ideas.
Yet cursive consumes valuable lesson time. Some young teachers were not taught cursive properly themselves, notes Kathleen Wright of the Handwriting Collaborative in America, which means they need training and support. This time could instead be spent on other skills or teaching simpler styles of handwriting.
When students leave the classroom, their handwriting often changes anyway. Some continue with flowing, looping letters; others resort to squat, boxy scripts. After a few years working and typing, many find they can barely hold a pen any more. They wonder whether school taught them—and will teach their children—the write stuff. â–
For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter