ELLSWORTH – Cursive writing is a vital skill for children. Acquiring skills to write, and read in cursive helps students accomplish much more than just a style of writing and literacy. For starters, recognizing letters written in cursive helps children to diuerentiate and learn to read diuerent types of text and fonts that they come across with ease.

Writing in cursive helps build stronger pathways in the brain for visual perception, a skill that impacts the ability to draw, construct, and visualize 3-dimensional structures. Cur- sive writing promotes fluidity in speech. Furthermore, this added focus on penmanship forces one to reflect on the words that are being written enhancing vocabulary and intelligence.

Cursive improves the flow and speed of handwriting as well as spelling.

Cursive helps the brain learn and remember better than either print or typing.

Cursive builds confidence through self-awareness and re lationship skills.

Cursive facilitates letter recognition with students reading and writing skills.

All teachers were encouraged to submit samples of student handwriting to the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. St. Francis third grade student Kate Rohl is being rec- ognized for attaining handwriting proficiency and will also represent St. Francis School in the national competition.

Submitted by St. Francis School

St. Francis third-grader Kate Rohl will represent her school in the Azner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest. Photo courtesy of Mary Cormican