Why change the model we write with?
Cursive is the most fluent of handwritings because the pen isn’t lifted from the paper very often. Historically, it is the most evolved form. It encourages the relationship between body, gesture and mark-making, rhythm and the natural flow of ideas from mind to paper.
A writing style which requires each letter to be formed using more than one pen stroke, forcing the writer to lift the pen at least twice in order to write each single letter goes against the evolutional process of writing forms. If we consider the evolution of Western handwriting from the Latin alphabet, we can see that changes came about to increase speed and clarity. One of the most important developments concerns the number of pen strokes needed to write each letter: indeed, the fewer the pen strokes, the faster and more flowing the handwriting.
Nowadays, many people argue that handwriting is too slow for the speed of our thinking and the times we live in. This is an important point because it is true that writing is a slow process, the same way walking is when compared to taking the car. However, if we only used the car or the computer, we would become completely dependent on these means and we would fail to fully exploit our personal physical capabilities.
Writing by hand is a practice which helps us develop a balanced relationship between our minds and bodies.
For many of us, the current handwriting style, based on English Copperplate is linked to our childhood and has sentimental value. It is not, in itself, a wrong model, but it is a difficult model to learn.
Thanks to italic-style writing, on the other hand, children can take their first steps into the world of handwriting through a route that is both logical and easy to understand: they are taught the simplest, most functional type of lower case letters and come to understand what joining segments are for.