Do you have a superpower? I do!

Image courtesy of Society of Scribes

I always wanted to to know if I have a superpower. Well, it seems I do! It's the ability to read cursive writing. Who knew? I suspect I share this ability with many of you.

I found out I did after reading an article in Popular Science. A link to the article is at the bottom of this blog.

When I was in fifth grade, way back in 1966, I worked hard to develop beautiful penmanship. I practiced, practiced, practiced both in school and after school at home. Of course learning to write cursive also meant you learned how to read it.

I also have just always liked how words look on paper.

The sad thing is that aging has diminished the beautifulness of my hand writing. *sigh*

From the article:

“Reading cursive is a superpower,” Suzanne Isaacs community manager, National Archives...

Learning cursive used to be standard in classrooms across the United States, with penmanship graded. Once typewriters became common and later computers, it started to disappear. Common Core teaching standards emphasized keyboard typing by 2010. However, 14 states still require cursive to be taught in schools, regardless of how little it is used in daily life...

There is also some evidence that learning cursive benefits the brain.

“More and more neuroscience research is supporting the idea that writing out letters in cursive, especially in comparison to typewriting, can activate specific neural pathways that facilitate and optimise overall learning and language development,” neuroscientist Claudia Aguirre told the BBC after the California law passed.

Read the entire article here:

Know how to read cursive? The National Archives wants you