Absent art of cursive may return

Teaching cursive writing may stage a comeback to schools in Delaware.

House Bill 70, introduced last month by Rep. Andria Bennett, D-Dover, would require that all Delaware public schools teach cursive writing by the end of fourth grade. The bill proposes handwriting be taught during English class beginning in fall 2017. A similar bill introduced by Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-North Wilmington, died in 2016 after the General Assembly failed to take action on it.

In its latest form, the bill seeks to bring back cursive writing for elementary students. Sponsors of the bill say cursive writing took a back seat in Delaware classrooms under Delaware's standards-based education system, known as Common Core, in part because children were learning keyboarding skills.

“Under current educational standards, students are no longer required to be taught cursive writing, and many schools have abandoned teaching cursive writing to students,” the bill states. “As cursive writing is still an imperative skill in many professions, this bill makes teaching cursive writing a requirement for all public schools in Delaware.”

Cape Henlopen students learn cursive writing in second and third grades. Donna Kolakowski, supervisor of elementary education for the Cape Henlopen School District, said that demands on instructional time have decreased emphasis on cursive writing, but it remains part of the elementary curriculum. “We may need to revisit the amount of time that is spent on cursive instruction and the expectations for students using it on a more regular basis,” she said.

Cape parent Nelia Dolan said elementary students receive very little cursive instruction or practice.

“It has been pushed out because of the emphasis on academic subjects, i.e. math and language arts, those which are tested,” she said. “Since I feel like we have been headed in the wrong direction over emphasizing testing and over-testing, ignoring the value things like the arts, citizenship, being part of a community, changes that will bring back things that are a quieter art should be a good thing.”

But, Dolan said, she does not support piling a cursive writing mandate on top of existing curriculum and data collection requirements, which already burden teachers today.

Cape Henlopen School Board Vice President Alison Myers said although Cape can afford cursive writing materials for its students, unfunded state mandates put a strain on all school district budgets.

“Just wondering which one will be the straw that breaks the camel's back,” she said.

Still, she said, her two oldest children did not received enough instruction at school to be proficient in cursive writing. She supplemented their school instruction with a cursive handwriting course that she bought.

Rep. Ruth Briggs King, R-Georgetown, said she supported Hudson's bill, and she is a cosponsor of the latest bill.

“Retention is better when you write something instead of typing it out,” she said.

Developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination are also benefits of learning cursive writing, say Briggs King and experts on cursive writing.

Neurologist William Klemm of Texas A&M, author of “Why Writing by Hand Could Make You Smarter,” says the neurological benefits of writing by hand are compounded with cursive.

“Cursive writing, compared to printing, is even more beneficial because the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less stereotypical, and the visual recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation,” he writes.

London researcher Diane Montgomery, author of “The Contribution of Handwriting and Spelling Remediation to Overcoming Dyslexia,” said the connected letters and fluid motion of cursive handwriting are especially beneficial to students with dyslexia and dysgraphia.

“If taught from the outset, it eliminates the need to relearn a whole new set of motor programmes after the infant stage, and there is a more efficient use of movement because of cursive’s flow,” she said.

But reading the loopy-letter style is just as important as writing it, said Briggs King.

“Students need to be able to read handwriting so they can read historic documents,” she said.

The bill targets students up to fourth grade, but for students older than fourth grade who were never taught cursive, Briggs King said, it should be offered as an elective.

“It absolutely could be taught as an elective for those who missed out,” she said.

Delaware is part of a growing group of states that are considering or have already passed legislation to bring back cursive.

In 2016, Louisiana passed a law requiring that all public schools teach cursive by third grade and continue through 12th grade. Arkansas passed a similar law in 2015 and Kentucky has introduced a bill.

Ten states, including Virginia, California, Florida and Texas, have cursive writing requirements in their state education standards.