Cursive in Kindergarten?
At Pinnacle Classical Academy, we learn cursive in kindergarten rather than teaching print. This might sound odd at first, and to many parents, perhaps even a bit intimidating. But students who learn to write using cursive see benefits in their reading, their writing, and their enjoyment of learning.
Students naturally learn how to do print because they read it, but cursive helps them learn how to write. It reinforces the left to right way of reading and helps them not to invert letters. Lowercase “b” and “d”, for example, are completely different letters in cursive. In print writing, we often see letter reversals with such similar letters. When they learn the cursive letters first, it helps them to distinguish between them and not flip them around. Similarly, some children, when they first begin to write, will write from right to left rather than left to right. In many cases, this is unrelated to dyslexia or similar learning differences, but is just a habit they pick up because they don’t know any better. Because cursive is written continuously from left to right, it helps prevent this habit.
So, cursive helps with fluidity in writing, it helps reinforce reading left to right, and it cuts down on letter reversals and writing backwards. In the fall, we start by learning three letters a week, and as we go, we learn not only the sounds but the cursive letters. At the end of September, when we’re done with the single letters, we jump in with multi-letter phonograms. We can also start reading at that point, and students learn to generalize the cursive letters they’re writing to the print letters they’re reading in their books. In the end, they’ll have seventy phonograms including single-letter and multi-letter ones, and they’ll be able to write all of them in cursive.
Reading print and writing cursive is similar to learning two languages at once: it’s slower at first, but kindergarteners love it! It makes them feel grown up. I often have mothers tell me, “My son’s handwriting is better than his dad’s!” We laugh about it, but I do require that they write as neatly as possible. It will not be perfect, and everyone’s best is different. I tell them that. But when students start out printing, and then in second or third grade they have to switch and learn cursive, they are often frustrated by the change. They wonder why they have to learn cursive when they already know how to write. They almost don’t want to make progress in cursive because they don’t enjoy it; they prefer to continue printing. When we start with cursive, it allows them to enjoy it more. And that is one thing we’re all about in classical education—loving to learn.
We also emphasize beauty, and cursive is a beautiful way to write. Great writers and thinkers of the past have valued excellent handwriting as a mark of education and accomplishment. Imagine Mr. Darcy writing to his sister as Elizabeth takes a turn about the room. Men had beautiful handwriting. It was a requirement. In no way is excellent handwriting a feminine trait—it’s valuable for everyone! When our handwriting is beautiful, we get more enjoyment from writing, and because it is easier to read, we also have greater opportunity to serve others with our writing.
When we learn phonograms and cursive writing, and as we begin to read cursive and print, we are building a deep, rich foundation for our kindergarten students for their lifelong learning. They are building a bank account of phonics and cursive and math facts so that as they mature into greater understanding, they will have the knowledge foundation to interpret and build that understanding. These tools will serve them for life.
Renee Reed
Kindergarten Teacher
