A comeback for cursive? More states encouraging penmanship in school
Gretel Kauffman
March 6, 2017 —Cursive, the art of penmanship cast aside in recent years as schools increasingly focus on keyboarding, may be getting a second act.
Last year, Alabama and Louisiana became the latest of 14 states to pass laws requiring cursive proficiency in public schools. And in the fall, New York City Schools – the country's largest school district, with 1.1 million students – encouraged teaching cursive to elementary school students.
As we as a society find ourselves relying more and more on computers, cell phones, and other forms of technology to communicate and express ourselves, many educators have declared cursive an unnecessary skill. In 2010, most states adopted the Common Core curriculum standards, which don't mention handwriting.
But proponents of cursive say it provides students with the practical skills to take notes more quickly, read and understand a broader range of documents, and sign their name in a more aesthetically pleasing way. And some suggest that the benefits go beyond practical: cursive, they say, can encourage creativity, allow young people to more easily express themselves in writing, and even boost SAT college entrance exam scores.
A study published in 2012 that examined the writing habits of Canadian second-grade students found that students learning cursive benefitted more in their work than students who only learned print ...
Rest of story at Christian Science Monitor
