Cursive

[politicat]

57. Skip print. Start with cursive or an Italianate script. Add keyboarding.

Neurologically, print forces a brain to stutter multiple times in each word -- the pause between the end of each letter and the beginning of the next. It breaks words down below their point of discrete meaning. The point of writing is to express thought and speech, which we do in words, not individual letters. It's also pointless to teach one method and just as the child is gaining competence, switch to something else. It's a system that sets kids up to fail. Since cursive has neurological benefits that print lacks, let's go with what provides the most bang for the buck earliest.

Five year old cursive won't be any neater or prettier than five year old print, but print is a skill that can be acquired after the muscle training of cursive. Neatness and legibility are the result of muscle training, not script style.

Italianates have most of the advantages of both script and print -- fluidity, legibility, speed -- but for some reason, parents find them weird, so those aren't getting traction.