Students say grown-up writing fun, pretty

Editor’s note: This article ran in a 1996 edition of The Free Press. It has been edited for content.

Why teach children one way to write, and then tell them to learn another way?

That’s the question administrators at Bethel Christian Academy pondered as they determined whether to start teaching students cursive in kindergarten.

The school started teaching cursive in first grade this year, moving it down from second grade where it was traditionally taught.

“Tradition is so strong in education, but we had to be honest with ourselves,” Bethel Principal Richard Barnard said.

The school learned about teaching cursive early through A Beka Books, which publishes the school’s texts.

The company had begun printing first grade books that taught children cursive as well as books that still stressed print. After studying other schools that piloted the early cursive, administrators decided to integrate it into their curriculum and have since seen nothing but success, Barnard said.

“We were amazed at how well it went over,” he said.

Students find writing in cursive much easier because it flows unlike the restrictive ball and stick method associated with print, Barnard said.

Although the children are learning cursive, Barnard said they are still able to read print because they are still exposed to it in their books.

“They pick it (cursive) up quite quickly because it’s interesting to them,” first grade teacher Mary Beth Crawford said.

Crawford said she thinks the school’s plan to teach cursive in kindergarten will work.

“They won’t have to unlearn something they’ve already learned,” she said.

Many students in the school’s two first grade classes agreed that teaching cursive early has worked.

“I forgot all about print and I just go with cursive,” Joshua Raney, 7, said. “I never knew cursive before I came in this class.”

Although almost all the students said they liked cursive because it was fun, some had their own reasons for liking it.

“It’s grown up writing,” Emily Jordan, 7, said.

“It’s pretty,” Amber Hughes said, as she practiced writing the alphabet in cursive.

Barnard said the school will begin teaching kindergarteners cursive next year.