Curious about how learning happens at Mountain Laurel? Join us at an upcoming Open House and see our classrooms in action. We’d love to show you around.
Call us: 845-255-0033
Email us: administration@mountainlaurel.org
Picture a third grader, pencil in hand, carefully tracing the looping curves of a lowercase “f.” It takes effort. The tongue might even be out in concentration. It looks, from the outside, like a small thing.
It isn’t.
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology recently confirmed what Waldorf educators have understood for more than a century: when children write in cursive, their brains light up in ways that typing simply cannot replicate. Using high-density EEG technology, scientists found that handwriting – especially the fluid, connected motion of cursive – activates a far broader network of brain regions than keyboarding. The areas engaged include those associated with memory formation, language processing, and the kind of deep cognitive work that supports real learning.
As schools across the country have leaned increasingly on digital devices over the past decade, the research has quietly been building in the other direction.
Why Cursive, Specifically?
There’s something particular about the continuous, flowing motion of cursive that sets it apart – even from printing by hand. Unlike pressing individual keys or lifting a pencil between each letter, cursive requires the brain to anticipate the next letter while completing the current one. That anticipation demands planning, sequencing, and the smooth integration of fine motor control with visual information – a rich neurological workout that builds stronger pathways for reading, comprehension, and memory.
A landmark study by researchers Karin James and Laura Engelhardt found that handwriting – but not typing – activated a unique “reading circuit” in young children’s brains, suggesting that the physical act of forming letters is actually foundational to learning to read. When children write by hand, they don’t just record information. They process it more deeply, retain it longer, and engage it more fully.
Theodor Lundin, who has taught three cycles of 1st through 8th grade at Mountain Laurel, notes: “When children first learn cursive in third grade, there’s this wonderful moment of concentration – you can almost see them feeling the shape of each letter as they form it. What I notice over time is that the children who write by hand regularly seem to hold onto what they’ve learned in a different way. It’s as if the movement itself helps the memory settle in. Writing isn’t just how they record what they know – it’s part of how they come to know it.”
From First Grade to Lab Reports
At Mountain Laurel, handwriting isn’t a subject that gets checked off the list – it’s woven through everything. Our students write their lesson books by hand, recording what they’ve learned in their own words and illustrating their pages with their own drawings. As they move through the grades, they draft essays, take notes, conduct research, and write up science experiments – all in cursive.
This isn’t a nostalgic holdover. It’s a pedagogically intentional practice that aligns directly with what neuroscience has been confirming: that the hand and the brain are in constant conversation, and that writing by hand deepens understanding in ways that technology cannot replicate.
By the time Waldorf students reach the Middle Grades, cursive has become second nature. Ruth Lawson, who currently teaches 8th Grade at Mountain Laurel, reflects that “writing in the classroom is studious, almost meditative. A quiet mood envelops the room as the students work. They are able to take copious notes during science experiments or produce fact-filled and creative essays easily as their imagination and thought processes are freed to engage fully, not worried about the mechanical details of writing. The relationship between thinking and writing is visible – and valuable.” She adds that at Mountain Laurel, cursive writing is “one more form of expressive creation flowing from the students’ fountain pens – and the end results are beautifully presented pieces of work.”
Head, Heart, and Hands
Waldorf education has long been described as a “head, heart, and hands” approach – and the emphasis on handwriting is one of the clearest examples of all three working together. The hand trains the brain. The brain enriches what the hand creates. And across eight years of school, that relationship deepens into something that belongs entirely to the child.
Curious about how learning happens at Mountain Laurel? Join us at an upcoming Open House and see our classrooms in action. We’d love to show you around.
Call us: 845-255-0033
Email us: administration@mountainlaurel.org