March 2022

IN THIS ISSUE: The Merits of Cursive Handwriting Instruction Becky Callaway, Lower School Principal The Middle School Learner Jesse Owens, Middle School Principal Axis Ministry Resources for Students and Parents Daniel Head, High School Principal

The Merits of Cursive Handwriting Instruction Becky Callaway, Lower School Principal

In 2013, U.S. Common Core Curriculum representatives announced that cursive handwriting would no longer be taught in American elementary schools. Immediately, seven states pushed back, proclaiming what they saw as the merits of cursive handwriting instruction in the elementary grades. (Bone, J (2013). Cursive Handwriting Will No Longer be Taught in Schools: Should It? Retrieved from http://www.eonline.com) Since then, another 14 states, including Georgia, have joined their ranks, keeping this longstanding academic tradition alive in the classrooms of approximately half of the country. As a decades-long educator of young children and a staunch believer in the teaching of cursive handwriting, I often find myself in conversations on the topic. Typically, someone in the discourse will tout the merits of being able to read cursive handwriting so that one can know the contents of our nation’s “founding” documents. I never disagree with the person who makes a statement like this, but I don’t really hold to that justification. After all, each of these documents originally composed in cursive is readily available and much more legible in Times New Roman, 12-point font. While many would agree that cursive handwriting is an art form worth preserving for its artistic merits alone, I have had a hunch there had to be more, so I set out to discover what, if any, the true benefits of continuing to teach students to write in cursive are.

What I uncovered confirmed my hunch and with more documentation than I ever anticipated such a seemingly tiny part of our elementary curriculum was capable of garnering. Right off the bat, I discovered that in a typical year, the U.S. postal service collects approximately thirty-eight million illegibly addressed letters and packages, which cost over $4 million in attempts to deliver or return to the sender. This same source of information disclosed that nearly 20% of hospital medication orders are returned by pharmacies as illegible. (How Handwriting Supports the Science of Reading. DA Daily News. 2022, March 4). While these statistics were staggering, it wasn’t really the type of evidence I was looking for.  As I continued reading, I discovered multiple studies that confirm that writing by hand creates increased sensorimotor activity throughout the brain, thus priming the brain to receive and better retain learning. It seems that writing by hand in cursive does an even more thorough job of “priming the pump,” as the connectivity of the letters within words aids students in becoming better thinkers. In a recent survey conducted among educators by the National Education Association, Cheri Cahill, a middle school math teacher, responded, “Cursive is more than just a way to write. It strengthens the cross-hemisphere connections in the brain. Helps students later with problem-solving and abstract thinking. As a math teacher I think students should learn cursive to help their brains develop those connections needed later in life” (Long, C. 2022, February 4. The Great Cursive Writing Debate. NEA Today).

Some older, yet equally reliable studies point to the value of cursive writing as an aid to overall better learning and school performance. In her February 8, 2016, article, appearing on the Waldorf School of San Diego’s website, Jennifer Doverspike reinforces the findings of other researchers but adds more compelling evidence of her own to the argument for maintaining cursive instruction in school curricula. In her article, “Ten Reasons People Still Need Cursive,” among her justifications for cursive instruction are: Cursive helps people integrate knowledge more thoroughly and permanently. Learning to write well (mechanically) aids in increased quality of the content written. Correlations between the two are seen on MRIs. Brains of those with good handwriting activate more areas of cognition, language, and executive function than those with poor handwriting. Our hands should be multilingual- able to write in print, cursive, and using a keyboard. Each of these forms stimulates the brain differently. Cursive, she contends, stimulates synchronicity between the brain’s right and left hemisphere as neither of the other forms of writing does, and should, therefore, not be abandoned as an inconvenient, antiquated mode of expression. We learn better when we write something down. Writing by hand is slower than typing, and when writing is slowed down, learning is accelerated. Cursive handwriting provides kinesthetic benefits, which are especially beneficial to students with special needs. Interaction with the “curviness” of cursive letters has been known to aid in gaining language fluency. Cursive writing is known to serve in grounding students with sensory and behavioral processing disorders. Cursive impedes cognitive decline in the elderly, as it keeps the mind sharp.

Doverspike goes on to quote Dr. William Klemm, contributing author of Psychology Today: “Cursive writing helps train the brain to integrate visual and tactile information along with fine motor dexterity. Schools who have abandoned the teaching of cursive penmanship, or even penmanship at all, seem to have become obsessed with testing knowledge at the expense of training students to develop better capacity for acquiring knowledge.” Klemm further asserts that in schools today there is a lot of “’filling in the blanks’ and one-sentence responses and fewer and fewer assignments requiring students to actually compose their thoughts coherently and by hand in testing situations. Taking the quicker and easier approach to assessments shortchanges students in more ways than one.” As an independent school, we continually exercise the prerogative to make decisions based upon common sense, even if we are swimming against the tide of trendiness in curricular choices. We want to model for and assist our students in learning how to think, how to discern, and how to defend their perspective eloquently on a wide variety of topics and current events from a Biblical worldview. Given the compelling evidence for the justification of modeling, teaching, and requiring cursive handwriting in our lower school (and hopefully beyond) as is presented here, having this multi-beneficial skill as part of our curriculum is one of the attributes of our school that will help to propel our students to become better thinkers, problem solvers, and communicators as we encourage them to reach for the stars and become all that God has created them to be.

The Middle School Learner Jesse Owens, Middle School Principal

The middle school years are a time of complex physiological and cognitive changes for our students. As they attempt to navigate the challenging terrain of puberty, one challenge middle school students face is transitioning from concrete to abstract learning while dealing with newly emerging emotions and figuring out the complex relationships with their peers. Research shows that students in middle grades experience brain growth in the pre-frontal cortex region of the brain, which helps them make the transition from a concrete learner to an abstract learner (McDonald, 2010). Concrete learners are typically able to sort and order objects, combine objects, and transform objects and actions. They need visual and physical representations of the presented information to help them process the new concepts more effectively. However, abstract learners can think more critically and engage in problem-solving. They are more likely to form new ideas, compare and debate, and think about the possibilities associated with a given idea (Stanford Children’s Health).

As educators, our goal is to help our students develop these skills during the middle-grade years. By developing lessons that gradually introduce students to higher-order thinking skills, teachers can guide students and provide the scaffolding needed to achieve abstract thinking. Because this brain development occurs between the ages of 12-18, it is important to note that students will develop these skills at different times. While most sixth-grade students still need lessons geared to more concrete learning, eighth-graders need more lessons focused on concrete fading, which helps transition them towards abstract thinking. By tailoring developmentally appropriate and challenging lessons to our students, we can better prepare them for the difficulties of high school rigor.

While we as educators have a significant role in preparing middle school students for more complex thinking, there are strategies parents can utilize at home to encourage this transition as well. Parents should engage students in sharing their ideas about various topics, issues, and current events. Parents can also help by encouraging students to think independently and develop their own ideas. Perhaps most importantly, parents can help their children re-evaluate poorly made decisions (Stanford Children’s Health). By partnering with parents, the middle school faculty and staff can help students achieve academic success and be better prepared for the approaching challenges of high school. References: McDonald, Emma (2010). A Quick Look Into the Middle School Brain. Retrieved from https://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/resources/2/Principal/2010/J-Fp46.pdf. Cognitive Development in the Teen Years. Retrieved from https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=cognitive-development-90-P01594.

Axis Ministry Resources for Students and Parents Daniel Head, High School Principal

In my time in education, a recurring theme as I meet with well-intentioned, concerned parents is how they can best help their students navigate the online world. Most parents I have talked to will admit there are things online they don't want their students exposed to yet. These parents want the best for their students but are unsure how to start the conversation about the dangers that lie in the online/social media world.

Prince Avenue Baptist Church and Prince Avenue Christian School recognize this concern and recently brought David Eaton from Axis Ministry to campus to lead a parent talk about these exact issues. I hope many of you were able to attend, but I know with busy schedules, many were not able to attend the event. Here is a little about Axis from their website, which you can find here: Being a parent today is hard. According to Common Sense Media, the average teenager will spend about 9 hours a day with screen-based technology. Between social media apps like Tik Tok, Mixer, Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Marco Polo, and YouTube, video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, and video games like Among Us, Fortnite, and Super Smash Bros. — there is now more competition for our time and attention than ever before. We're Axis, and since 2007, we've helped hundreds of thousands of parents navigate conversations with their teens, and we've spoken directly with just as many students. For over a decade, we've been creating resources to help bridge the gap between parents, caring adults, and the next generation. We're a group of gospel-minded researchers, speakers, and content creators, and we're excited to bring you the best of what we've learned about making meaningful connections with the teens in your life.

The Axis website has over a hundred parent guides on several current hot button topics impacting your student’s world. They also provide conversation kits which are short video series that you can watch with your student and then follow up with a conversation. The resources from Axis are endless. Of course, resources this valuable come with a membership fee. However, the church and school believe this information is vital to students and parents. Therefore, they have purchased a membership for all PABC and PACS families. You now have access to all this material at your fingertips.   Please click here to create an account and start exploring Axis's material for parents.

Click Here to Create a Free Axis Account

Prince Avenue Christian School's mission is to partner with Christian families to provide scripturally based discipleship while pursuing excellence in academics, fine arts, and athletics from a biblical worldview.