I dig this out every time the subject comes up:

Should students be required to learn to write in cursive?

Cursive requires knowledge and skill not immediately applicable for a particular job, but it does train the mind and the hand to communicate with discipline and artistry. Lots of folks get into heated arguments over this topic, but it really is a surface issue.  The root question is "what is the purpose of basic schooling?"

Sadly, most Americans today believe that schooling is for VOCATIONAL TRAINING ONLY, meaning learning skills that immediately pertain to a job. Knowledge or skill that is not directly applicable to performing a specific vocational task should be excluded. This kind of education was traditionally called training in the "Servile Arts" because it was the type of education fitting for servants or slaves, or for those in the service industries.

But the classic purpose of basic schooling for free people was to teach the TOOLS OF LEARNING and to MAXIMIZE HUMAN POTENTIAL. This kind of education included the general knowledge and skills of the Servile Arts, but went beyond them to include knowledge and skills of a wide variety of subjects. Students acquired organized knowledge in the areas of grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy (physical sciences), as well as the intellectual skills appropriate to each, such as spelling, reading, writing, speaking, listening, computation, analysis, and problem solving. But most importantly, students were trained to integrate and understand these subjects. This kind of education was called the "Liberal Arts" because it was the type of education fitting for free people. It seeks human flourishing. Only after a free man had received a Liberal Arts education would he pursue a specialized education in the Servile Arts that provided him a means of earning a living.

The type of education received has a fundamental influence on the student. A slave does not need knowledge beyond his task and does not need to understand. All he must do is obey and execute, and so all that is needed is a Servile Arts education. His master provides him a means of living, food, clothing, and shelter, and makes his decisions for him. In contrast, a free man must provide these things for himself, and is responsible as a citizen for not only making wise decisions regarding his own welfare, but also in helping make wise decisions for his society through the influence of his vote. A free man must be educated in the Liberal Arts in order to be functional and responsible with his freedom.  A free man could very easily trade places with the slave and learn his tasks, but it is nearly impossible for the slave to do likewise.

But today we have traded basic schooling in the Liberal Arts for the Servile Arts, and so we are trading a nation of free men and women for a nation of slaves.

Writing in cursive is a Liberal Arts skill. It is not concerned with immediate application to performing a particular vocational task, but seeks a higher, more formative goal. The time spent learning to write in cursive trains the mind and hand to be patient and deliberate, and to appreciate beautiful form as well as function.  It is therefore a skill worthy of a free and flourishing people.



Addition:  Benefits of cursive to merely print

1. It requires more mental and physical discipline. It's harder to do it well.  So to do it well means there is greater strength of mind and will.
2. It teaches the mind to consider the transition between letters.  This is crucial in higher level problem solving where one must understand not just two separate tasks, but how to transition smoothly between them. Cursive introduces that concept.
3. It teaches students to consider the beauty of what is written in addition to the value of the ideas expressed.  It's important to consider how something is stated in addition to what is stated, both verbally with the voice, and also with handwriting.  The Constitution is not only a brilliant philosophical document, it's also a piece of high quality art.  It's beautiful to look at.
4.  It teaches student to imitate what is beautiful.  We should not give them ugly or even neutral things to fill their minds.  When learning to write, they should imitate good things to write, such as noble poems, the Ten Commandments, and other virtuous things.  They should also imitate things that are beautifully written, as in the script itself.
5. As a student gets older each will come to develop their own unique "hand", which allows for the expression of something totally lost with electronic communication: PERSONALITY.  Isn't a cursive signature still considered a type of "fingerprint" for identifying someone, unique to themselves only?  If you want students to grow up to be gnomes or NPCs, refuse to teach them cursive, among other things.  They will be little cookie cutter clones.

Plato said that school should be where students learn to love what is worth loving.  Cursive should be part of that curriculum that pursues Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.