Cursive–The Power of Connected Writing PART 1

PART 1: Wanda Sanseri, in her forward to Cursive First: An Introduction to Cursive Penmanship, Second Edition, stated: “The beautiful penmanship of even kindergarten students who started with cursive was surprising. Their work reminded me of the samples I had seen from the one-room schoolhouse museum. I saw many benefits of teaching cursive first (in her forward to FitzGerald, 2004).

Elizabeth FitzGerald was a serious doubter of what she had heard others in conferences argue, to wit, that for the greatest learning benefits, cursive had to be taught first and often, ahead of working with manuscript writing, e.g. block letters. After hearing more and more, FitzGerald stated, “I tried it with my son and the little girl who joined us…. The children took to cursive like ducks to water, and their writing quickly improved.” Then, citing a speech in 2000 by Samuel Blumenfeld, author of the books How to Tutor and Homeschooling: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Children, FitzGerald states that her resolve to teach her next two children cursive first was further strengthened (FitzGerald 2004).