Learning Cursive Through Bribery

My son, going into third grade in the autumn, spent some time learning cursive this past year. Students in our system typically do not practice cursive much, if at all, after this 2nd-grade introduction.

We want him to learn cursive, so we are going to reward him for completing a workbook this summer. He was given the workbook in class but they finished only about a third of it. (They did learn all the letters, but did not do all the practice pages). I have told him I will buy him a $30 Lego set when he is done. He is on board.

(His cursive is actually surprisingly good, and he does not mind doing it. Oh, he announces some token complaints about it, because he hears his older sister doing the same, but he has dutifully sat down to complete the pages every day with minimal prodding [other than the promised Lego].)

Someday he’ll want to handwrite a letter to a woman, and he’ll thank us that he won’t have to do it in printed letters that look like a patch of tomato stakes and candy canes.