GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Cursive writing is a skill many of us learned growing up, but it's unfortunately not part of the mandatory curriculum in Michigan. As a result, many children are missing out on this valuable skill.
Endless Opportunities, a youth advocacy group in Grand Rapids, is working to ensure cursive writing is not lost forever.
Cursive writing isn't always taught to today's youth, which can have implications for their future. Caleb Murray, a participant in the group's cursive writing program, stated, “And I also wanted to learn because I never learned how to write in cursive throughout my childhood.”
The four-week-long course will help this form of penmanship from becoming a lost art form. A.J Hills, owner of Endless Opportunities, pointed out, “When you see young people, you ask them to sign their name, and they just sign their name in print, right?”
The importance of cursive writing cannot be overstated. Hills emphasized, “We know that as they get older, there's going to be legal documents, or just simply, as they sign their name on those checks, those things are still around, but we want to make sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful.”
Endless Opportunities is dedicated to making sure students can master this skill. Hills mentioned, “It was just really based upon us visualizing their writing and seeing that ... they don't have a signature, and we want to make sure that the students we interact with have all of the tools, capabilities, not only that the district that they go to school and offer but also the region in West Michigan.”
In collaboration with Mosaic Masterminds, Endless Opportunities offers courses teaching students from 6th through 12th grade how to write in cursive. April Ruiz, founder of Mosaic Masterminds, explained, “So it's really something that we can help our scholars to acquire another skill. There's also memory benefit, cognitive development, and language learning is also enhanced with cursive writing.”
Many recall a time when cursive writing was a standard part of the curriculum. April reflected, “When I was growing up, cursive writing was a part of our curriculum, and it seemed to be around the late '70s, early '80s, that schools started to drop that from teaching in schools.”
For kids like Caleb, the impact of learning cursive is evident. He shared, “I'm getting better at it. I had to use my signature, only a few days ago, for an ID. And I've got a lot of compliments; it's pretty good for someone that just started.”
Caleb is pushing through, even when faced with tricky letters. He noted, “The hardest letters are definitely 'r' and 'y.' 'R' is so unique compared to other letters, especially lowercase 'r.' It's very weird.”
For Hills, teaching cursive writing represents a small but effective way to help students. He stated, “So for us, it's about skill development and playing a piece of the connection to resolution that we could have our arms around and absolutely control and help predict the outcomes for, which is why we're here.”
The program is currently halfway through its course offerings, with two more weeks still to go. Although this is their pilot program, they hope to bring it back for years to come.
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