Nearly six years after the state made cursive writing instruction optional, fifth-grade teacher Randy Roberts continues to be a holdout — requiring his pupils to use it each time he gives a spelling test.
At Washington Township Elementary School, it is still taught beginning in third grade. Despite the change in state requirements, Roberts still sees it as a valuable skill that requires time and patience.
“I don’t know how it happened with me, but somewhere along the line, it became important to me,” he said. “So, even when it was de-emphasized, we still continued with it.”
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when cursive writing began to fall out of favor. But cursive instruction was in decline long before 2010, when most states adopted the Common Core curriculum standards, which say nothing about handwriting.
Some script skeptics question the advantage of cursive writing over printing and wonder whether teaching it takes away from other valuable instruction.
Since the state pulled the cursive requirement in 2011, Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, has continued a quest to return the requirement to schools.
“There are kids that no longer have a signature,” she said Thursday.
Her bill passed the Senate 35-14 in January, but faces an uncertain future again this year in the House.
Pupils, Roberts said, are quick learners.
Even it they never learned cursive writing, it is usually a skill past students have picked up in about two to three months, Roberts said.
“The kids really buy into it,” he said. “We have a tendency to rush through every job that we do. This is kind of a way to counteract that.”
It was a skill that students could be taught to appreciate, he said.
“I love it,” said Washington Township pupil Avary Robinson, 10. “I just like how the letters are formed and it’s pretty how you write it.”
Penmanship proponents say writing words in an unbroken line of swooshing l’s and three-humped m’s is just a faster, easier way of taking notes. Others say students should be able to understand documents written in cursive, such as, say, a letter from grandma. And still more say it’s just a good life skill to have, especially when it comes to signing your name.
According to the Associated Press, 14 states require cursive, including Alabama and Louisiana that passed laws last year.
“I’m hardly alone at this point,” Leising said.
Twitter: @meredithcolias
