The Common Core requires legible manuscript (printing) in kindergarten and first grade, but after that there are no standards relating to handwriting. Learning cursive writing is not required.
In fourth grade, the Common Core requires students to be able to keyboard or type a full page at one sitting.
However, the Common Core developers have encouraged individual states and school districts to modify the standards as is appropriate for their populations. Some states have included handwriting. In California, kids need to learn printing in second grade and cursive in third and fourth grade. Massachusetts requires legible handwriting of any kind in fourth grade.
Does your state require children to practice handwriting? You can find out by going to your state’s department of education and searching for the state-required curriculum. You may find that your state has adopted the Common Core as a whole, in which case handwriting will not be taught after first grade.
But that does not mean you can’t augment your child’s learning. Teacher supply stores sell booklets on how to write in cursive. Or you can go online to find such materials.
One good reason for children to be able to read and write cursive is to be able to read documents from the past. The original Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were first written in cursive as were all documents before the 1860’s when the typewriter started being used.
Another reason is that teachers in higher grades and college often write notes, worksheets and sometimes tests in cursive. A seventh grader told me that when her science teacher wrote some notes on the white board, few students in the class could read them. The same teacher wrote a thank you note to members of a team she coaches, and the students needed to ask their parents to read the note to them.
Until word processing became popular in the 1980’s, most private correspondence, diaries, journals and manuscripts were written in cursive. How awful not to be able to read great-grandpa’s post cards home from WWII or great-grandma’s recipes in her hand.
Written responses to test questions can be made faster with cursive than with printing. This might not seem important when children are little, but writing a complete essay in 25 minutes for the SAT is another matter. Sometimes students will have electronic notepads to take notes, but when they don’t, they will appreciate the ease of note-taking in cursive.
A few minutes a day practicing one letter at a time is all it takes to learn cursive. Yet that knowledge opens another world to children, as does reading music, Braille, sign language or numbers.
English Writing Teacher 