Cursive Class

Cursive Class was founded by Writing Specialist Diane Hailey, M.A.T. and is based on the belief cursive writing instruction helps children experience numerous positive effects. In her 15 years of public relations, marketing and technical writing, Hailey has never waivered in her belief handwriting will always be an essential skill for success in any field. Studies show longhand writing can boost connectivity between ideas and communication, is a conduit from reception to long-term memory, and is a key to kinesthetically tapping into cerebellum stimuli. However, our nation's educational system has begun to downplay the importance of handwriting. Cursive writing is not required by the national educational Common Core Standards; therefore, cursive instruction is being cut or is extremely limited. Keyboarding is prioritized as schools become more and more entrenched in computerized testing.
There is a direct correlation between quality of handwriting and the quality of the written text. In short, teach a child to write with fluency and the child will become a better writer.
Handwriting fluency has an added benefit. It can tap into the long-term memory when typing alone cannot. It is easy to understand why handwriting notes in class, as opposed to typing notes, can make comprehension of the instructor's lecture easier. Studies show that students who handwrite lecture notes score better on assessments than students who type notes on their laptop. When a student handwrites notes with fluency, they are constantly summarizing and processing the material. In sharp contrast, the student typing notes is merely transcribing the spoken words verbatim. Handwriting notes is a more effective method of sending the most important information into the long-term memory bank.
Cursive writing instruction not only teaches a child to write cursive but to read cursive, as well. It is hard to believe many middle and high school students must ask their parents' to translate their instructors' written feedback on assessments; however, this is now commonplace. Teachers and professors still write in cursive, and students need to be able to decipher the information on their own. Further, most historical documents are written in cursive. Without cursive instruction, we are now educating a generation of young people who cannot walk into a museum and read our treasured artifacts of the United States.

As a graduate student in the Hollins University Education Department, Ms. Hailey received the 2011 Virginia Scholars Award and is a member of the IOTA State Organization of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. Hailey holds a Collegiate Professional teaching license in the Commonwealth of Virginia.