Why Teach Cursive in 2026?

An eighth grader came into class holding a handwritten letter from his grandparents, and told his teacher, happily, that his mom had typed it out so he could read it.

"That broke my heart," Katy McKinney says. She was the teacher. She's also the Founder and Head of School of Lafayette Classical Academy (LCA). It was at that moment that she stopped her eighth grade English class, got a fourth-grade handwriting book, and taught thirteen-year-olds cursive for five minutes a day for the rest of the year. By spring, students whose print was rough to read were writing script that was, in her word, gorgeous!

In this episode, Katy gives seven reasons LCA teaches cursive while most schools have dropped it. It connects children to the past, to their grandparents' letters, and to the journals and documents of our founding, read without a translator. It's personal expression: handwriting is like a fingerprint. It builds the brain in ways typing doesn't. It teaches patience, and craftsmanship, and it's simply beautiful. And in a world of instant messages and AI-generated text, a handwritten note still says something no machine can: I took the time to do this for you.

There are no iPads and no Chromebooks in LCA classrooms. There's no shortcut.

So why does Lafayette Classical Academy teach cursive? Katy says the better question is the other one: What are we losing, in the name of efficiency, if we don't?

If this episode encouraged you or gives you hope, share it with a friend – because great nations are not renewed in the courts or in the capitals, but in our classrooms, in our families, and in the hearts of our children. That’s how we help preserve the promise of America.

For more information about Lafayette Academy, A Classical School please visit https://lafayetteacademy.org/

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Transcript

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Welcome back to the Lady K podcast. I'm Katie McKinney. I'm the founder and head of school for Lafayette Classical Academy. We just rebranded, and so we are Lafayette Classical Academy LCA. Today we are going to talk about why we teach cursive. Or maybe put another way, what do we lose when we do not teach cursive? This is something that we, a question we get from prospective parents. You know, why would you want to teach cursive? We have keyboards, we have tablets, we have computers. Isn't cursive simply outdated? And um, you know, what is its place in today's society? But I would argue that there are quite a number of reasons as to why we should teach cursive and why at Lafayette Classical Academy that we do continue to teach cursive. And it goes far beyond handwriting. So I wanted to go through um about six or seven of those reasons and give you some anecdotes along the way. And hopefully it's something that can uh inspire you. In fact, it's something that as we have over the last 10 years been been operating Lafayette Classical Academy, my husband has actually taken on the skill of teaching himself cursive and has worked to diligently write in cursive any chance he gets. And it's a work in progress, as he would say. Um, but it's it's something that uh, well, we'll talk about why it's important. All right, so the first one, um, the idea that the idea that cursive connects us to our past. I'll give you a quick anecdote here. Uh a few years back, I was teaching English to our middle school, our eighth graders, and I had them do a project wherein they had to ask their grandparents a series of questions. We actually mailed it to the grandparents, and the idea was that the grandparents would then handwrite back the answers to the to the questions, such as, you know, what was life growing up when you were a kid? Um, you know, can you tell us a favorite memory? Can you tell us about, you know, how did you, how did you, you know, get your food? How did you get to school? Those kind of questions. Historical things. And a lot of the grandparents handwrote their answers back to their kids. And one of those days when the mail was coming back in and one of the students got their letters, they said, Mrs. McKinney, I got my letter from my grandparents and my mom typed it out so I can read it. And I paused for a second and I said, Okay, that's great. I'm glad you got your letter. But secondly, what do you think it? There was so much to unpack in that little moment there. And I was like, oh, it broke my heart that they couldn't read their own grandparents' writing and that their parents had to type it out for them. Um, so I said, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna pause here, take a step. I need to know. And some of these kids were coming into Lafayette at different times. If you start with us when you are, you know, first and second grade, you're going to learn cursive and we're gonna, you know, expect that you're going to do that throughout. But if they come at sixth grade or seventh grade, you know, there's just, there's not as much time. We're moving on to other things. So we had a collection of those kids in our class and they didn't know. And I said, you know what? I can't in good conscience, I cannot let you graduate with me in eighth grade from this English class without knowing how to write and read cursive and hopefully to write it fluently. So what did I do? I got them a fourth grade book. Um, a lot of it was based on The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. And so they would practice writing the poem, The Raven, but through cursive. Um, so I kind of took one step back to take two steps forward. And we practiced every day for about five minutes. That's all it took. And they got to be where their handwriting was beautiful. And in fact, some of the students whose manuscript was very rough to read, their cursive was gorgeous. And I sorry, I shouldn't have been so surprised, but there were times where even some of our young boys were I thought, holy smokes, that was hiding within them. We had no idea until it was revealed through this practice of cursive. But all that to say, they did get to the point where they could read their parents, their grandparents' um letters to them, um their great-grandparents' letters. Um, and so this connection to the past is very important. Um, it also allows them to read our historical documents. Should they be doing um research with primary source documents? Many, if all were written in cursive for at least our American founding. And this would include diaries or journals or different correspondences in battle. You, I told the students, you don't want someone else interpreting that for you. You don't need a translator. I don't want a translator for you. I want you to discern what that information says and make sense of it for yourself. So there's that idea of um depending on someone else is so anti-American, in my opinion. You know, we we fought for independence and we live fervently with that sense of of independent spirit and being able to read, write, uh, read and write cursive is really important to maintaining and preserving that sense of independence. Um, so there's there's something very powerful about seeing the actual handwriting of someone else who lived before us. It's it's almost like you're touching history. And and it may not make a big imprint when you're reading your grandparents' letters, but when you're starting to read your great-grandparents or your great-great-grandparents, you know, there's something really special. There's a link, there's a human link that is really beautiful about that. So the first idea here is it's just a connection to the past, a connection, an authentic first source connection to the past. Secondly, it's this idea of personal expression. I almost look at it as that your handwriting is like your fingerprint. You know, when you look at your mom or your grandparents' handwriting, you can just feel the essence of them. At least I can. Um, my grandmother's handwriting was very feminine and flowery and lots of loops. And I can just feel her when I look at her handwriting. And likewise, my grandfather, the way his was, his was beautiful script, but it was much more linear. Um, and that says so much. He was of an engineer mind, and I can just, I can just feel him when I when I look at his handwriting. So every, everyone's handwriting is unique and different to them. Um, and when your handwriting is perfected, it is yours. It is your fingerprint on the world. Um, and of course, Cursef gives our students a very personal way of communicating. Um, and you compare that with a typed document, um, with the the fonts, the letters. You know, there's nothing that can replace, um, at least yet, right? Um, or maybe it can, um, our handwriting. And that note feels so personal because someone actually took the time to write it. I will say that we have um every Monday, we have a virtue speaker. Um, and uh right now we have internal virtue speakers because we're setting the stage as to what is virtue, what is good, what is the good. Um, and as we get community members coming inside to give those virtue talks, we um expect and demand that our students handwrite thank you notes and in cursive, if they know cursive at that time, in cursive to the speaker. And that does a number of things. One, it allows the student to express gratitude for that act of service that that individual did for our school. It allows the student to reconnect with the message that was given in that virtue talk. Um, and then of course, it allows them to do it to write a thank you note. You know, that is such a lost art. And I feel that that is such an important thing that we continue to do. I I have done it all my life. I've expected my children to do it. And after every birthday party, they write thank you notes. After every graduation, they write thank you notes, and it might be upwards of 20 or 30 thank you notes, but it's important. And the receiver gets great joy in being acknowledged, being seen for that act that they did. So it's it's just on so many levels, it's such an important piece of what we do. And so that personal expression is another reason why we teach cursive. Obviously, it also, and we've talked about this in the past, it helps the mind. Handwriting isn't just about getting words onto a piece of paper, but the physical act of forming those letters involves the brain in a different way than typing. As we know from our phonics training with Access Literacy that we teach, the act of writing, and when we're doing this now, and we're literally doing it as we speak in kindergarten, first, second, third grade, is we're forming those letters and those specific lines, and the way that those lines touch on the on the top baseline, the bottom baseline, and the middle dotted line, they're the student is speaking the letter or the sound of the letter, I should say. They're writing it, they're seeing it, and they're saying it. All four of those senses are happening at the same time. And it's literally carving neuropathways. I like to think of them as super highways eventually, um, because they become habits of mind. And so the hand connection to the brain is essential in that process of learning. And so the handwriting can actually reinforce the learning and the memory. Um, and cursive creates a continuous movement which encourages that sense of fluency, both in the writing and in the thinking. So the hand isn't merely uh a vehicle for learning, but the hand is participating in the learning. And that is essential. And we find that our students learn very deeply because of our demand for uh for handwriting and the other components, we don't we don't have computers in the classroom. There are no iPads, there are no Chromebooks. And I find that that is just a very healthy, beautiful environment for our students because it allows them to do all the work. There's no shortcut. The other thing that teaching cursive accentuates is the act of slowing down and patience, something that I'm continually working on because I run a 150 miles an hour. But when you sit down, when I sit down to write a thank you note, it's, I don't know, it's it's almost for me, it's very relaxing and it allows me to be present in the moment. Um, so much of our world today is not being present in the moment. And I think it's about speed, it's about type it, send it, get it gone. And cursive requires you to slow down. You form the letters, you connect them, you are paying attention to what you're doing. And there's, I think, a great value in teaching our children that not everything has to be fast or efficient. My kids will laugh when they hear that because I'm all about productivity and making sure things are efficient. And yes, there is a time and place for that, but there's also a time and place to just be in the moment and to slow down and to, as you're forming those letters, thinking about that individual, giving gratitude, acknowledging them. And of course, when they receive it, um, it's such a, again, a thing of the past, but when they receive it, oh my goodness, what an impact it makes. I have heard from some of our Lafayette supporters, because I work hard to write handwritten thank you notes when I can, to those, to those wonderful supporters. And I have heard one of them said, it means so much to us that you took the time to write that note. And I am grateful because it meant so much to me and to the school that they took time and gave of their of their treasure to support what we're doing. So it just symbolizes that that acknowledgement of gratitude in a very deep uh and impactful way. Teaching Cursive also helps uh a sense of discipline for the student, uh, for the individual, as well as craftsmanship. Obviously, there is a right way to form letters. Handwriting in and of itself is not being taught in school today. I remember volunteering in my son's second grade classroom back in 2016, and it was second grade, and the teacher said, We don't have time to teach handwriting. And I said, Well, can I can I volunteer and can I come in and teach it? Because that was when my son was practicing it. And I could tell his letters were not being formed correctly. They didn't have the time, obviously, to teach it. They were teaching other things, I guess. And so she said, I would love that. So I would come in and I would actually sit down with um, I don't, I don't know if I made them. I feel like I did because it was very handmade what was being used, what I had to use. But in any case, I sat down on the cold tile floor. I'd have four or five kids in front of me, and they were practicing their letters and I was teaching them how to form their letters. And then there were some kids so hungry saying, Please could you teach me cursive? And so it was almost like it was a secret thing. Like, I'm not supposed to do this, but I'll teach it to you. Um, what a shame. Uh the teacher was very grateful for that because she's like, I can't even read their handwriting. But she said, We're we're somewhat, this was in a public school, we're on a script and we're not allowed to deviate from that script. And so she says, I just don't have time. Um weird, you know, it just that's just such a such a shame. But the idea here is that there is a right way to form the letters. Practice does matter, details do matter, and ultimately the child is not going to get it right immediately. And so there's a time of practicing for weeks, for months, and they begin to improve and they begin to take pride in what they do. I think just too, the act from kindergarten, you know, how do I hold my pencil? Which I was so excited and so proud of them. We just had our first four days of school last week. And I asked the kindergartners on day five or on Friday, day four, how to hold their pencil. And they all immediately said, you know, we hold it with our thumb and our middle finger, and then that pointer finger rests just gently on the pencil. They all knew it. It was beautiful. Miss Cooper, thank you so much for doing a great job. But they knew at five years old how to hold the pencil, very important. But then, secondly, the act of going from brand new beginning uh introduction to how to hold a pencil and how to form the five lines that make up the English language, to then by the end of second grade or middle of second grade, fluently writing, oftentimes in cursive. Um, you know, that's an act of perfection and of excellence. And the journey, it's a two-year journey. That alone teaches our children the importance of dedication and patience and perseverance and grit, that it's going to take time to get to that standard of beauty and excellence, but the journey is worth it. And where else could they apply those same lessons? They, excuse me, they can apply them in writing a paper, writing an essay, writing a thank you note, um, uh, persevering at a sport. Um, you know, excellence takes time and it takes dedication, it takes self-sacrifice. There's just so much that goes into that. But then in the end, too, the beautiful pride um in doing something well is uh is is well deserved. And it's very um gratifying for the student. I think it improves, it enhances their sense of self-worth because they did the work, they didn't take any shortcuts. And those habits, as I said, extend far beyond handwriting. Um, so we're we're teaching the habit of mindfulness, carefulness, of craftsmanship. Um, and that's that's a beautiful thing, which leads me into the idea of beauty. Cursive, of course, is beautiful. And that is one reason alone, just to teach it, that we shouldn't just teach children things because they're useful or because they're efficient, but we value the encountering of beauty um simply because it is beautiful. And in fact, today we talked about um actually the good, and the teacher, Mr. Tanquist, showed us the difference between a good chair and a bad chair. A bad chair meaning that it was not not effective or useful because the legs were broken. And so it was very clear to see a good chair, the one I'm sitting on right now, is showing proof of its utility. A bad chair would be one that is not showing proof of its utility. And so to that end, a good chair, you could also say is a beautiful chair. And in fact, as I walked in today to sit down for this podcast, I looked at this chair and I said, it's beautiful. The essence of it was beautiful. In any case, we want our children to value what is beautiful because it is the essence of good and the um essence of being useful. So anyway, the movement of the pen, the rhythm of the letters, the look of what it looks like on the page when it's written is wonderful. I will say, in second grade last year, um, Miss Leonard, our second grade teacher, brought me an example of some handwriting. It was practice handwriting. And she showed it to me. And my first thought was, that must be hers. It's very beautiful, it's very competent, it's very masterful. And she looked at me and she said, That is not my handwriting. She's like, Mine is not that good. I said, What? And it was one of the little boys in her class. And um, he was practicing the virtues. She has up on the wall the virtues of temperance, prudence, justice, and fortitude are four cardinal virtues. And she said he was hungering to continue writing down the definitions of prudence, of temperance, of virtue, of for of uh justice, of fortitude. And she said he just loved practicing his handwriting. It was gorgeous. It could have been something out of the 1900s. Um, and if I have an example here, I can uh I'll I'll show it, I'll integrate it and show it to you. But it was just lovely. Um, in fact, it was so beautiful. We included it in our quarterly newsletter recently. But he took great pride in that. And it was, again, it was a practice page, but it was an excellent practice page. So the idea here of our our world becoming increasingly efficient, um, it's a digital world. Um, it's important, I think, that we intentionally preserve those things that are beautiful. All right, just a couple more reasons here. Um, cursive gives us access to our heritage. I sort of touched at that, touched on that at the beginning. And it's actually better, bigger than just reading old handwriting. Obviously, our history, our American history in particular, is written by human beings. And those people wrote letters. They wrote uh especially letters from battle journals, uh, signed documents, contracts. Um, they recorded their thoughts quite often. And we can then read their handwriting and not just study about them or hypothesize or imagine. We can actually get the material right from what they wrote and encounter them. In fact, oh, it just happened last night. We were at dinner and we were talking about Daniel Boone. And my husband said, You know that book that I bought you? It's a book that was written in, it was in the 1700s. No, I think it was, it was, it was compiled or published in the 1800s. I want to say 1810. But in there was an account of Daniel Boone and his moving westward with his family and with about 40, uh, about five families, he said, 40 of them, and their encounters with the Indians. And he he wrote down in his own handwriting that information. And so I spent, gosh, maybe 30 minutes. I started reading it and I couldn't stop reading. And we were doing the dishes and we were kind of getting ready for the evening or getting our evening going. And yet it was so beautiful and it was a first-hand account. Um, it was from a book, so it wasn't incursive. But his original, the journal that he wrote, I'm sure was incursive. But it allows us to in interact with and encounter these characters, our our founders, if you will. And um, there's just something unique and beautiful about seeing uh those things. I like I said, I've got my grandparents' letters, and it's one of the most prized possessions I have. And if there was ever a fire in the house, I would be grabbing those and getting out. But that personal connection across generations um gives us a bridge to those who came before us and who really um, you know, they were the pioneers and and to know of their what they sacrificed to get us to where we are, it's important. And then the top reason, which I think is very appropriate for where we are in our current culture, but when we handwrite something, it preserves something human. I uh obviously we've talked about briefly here this world of AI, AI-generated text and AI uh, you know, putting forth everything, it's so integrated into everything that we do, but we have instant emails and messages and um everything is optimized for efficiency. Um, but yet when when someone takes a moment to write a handwritten letter, it it says, you know, I took the time to do this for you. Um, I thought of you. And um there's just something beautiful, whether it's thank you notes or a love letter or birthday cards or an old recipe. Maybe you have recipes from your grandparents or some from friends. Um, it's just so meaningful because the handwriting itself carries something of that person to the other. And that human touch is obviously something that AI can never replicate, but it's that that effort, that individuality, the personality as we've talked about, and just the the time that they took to think of you. And that in the in the essence of life, isn't that what matters? Um so if someone asks us, you know, why do we teach cursive to our students? I would say, you know, the more important question is what are we losing in the name of efficiency if we don't teach cursive? Um and uh we teach cursive so that our children can read the past so that they can do it without interpretation. We want them to be able to do that independently. We want them to develop discipline through their hands, to their heart and to their mind, and to appreciate beauty and express themselves individually, originally, um, authentically, and to preserve that essence of them in this unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know, um, digital world that we are finding ourselves more and more immersed in, that there's something really beautiful and important and precious, priceless about preserving that of the individual. So as we've talked in the past, at Lafayette, we are not simply educating students, but we are forming the affections of young men and women who can live with wisdom, courage, and virtue. And in doing doing so, we are helping to support and renew our country one child at a time. So if you've enjoyed this episode of the Lady Kay podcast, I invite you to share it with a friend. Um, great nations are renewed, not first in our capitals or in our courts, but in our classrooms, in our families, and in the hearts of our children. And that's how we are helping to preserve the promise of America. Thanks for joining me today.