Category Archives: cursive handwriting

I learned to print in first grade and to write in cursive in third grade.  I used cursive for all my written school work—spelling tests, homework, and exams—everything.  But  eventually, I used a combination of styles for hand writing—printing for capital and some lower case letters, and cursive for the rest.

Most of my incoming Christmas mail is addressed using printed labels.  But those friends who handwrite my address fit into three categories:

• They print everything, sometimes in all caps.
• They use a version of my hybrid style.
• They write in cursive. (But that method is rare since the advent of  computerized mail sorting machines.  My neighbor, who handwrites in gorgeous cursive, had her outgoing Christmas mail returned as “unreadable” two years ago.  So now she prints on her envelopes.  I guess the Post Office’s machines don’t read cursive.)

Cursive has been eliminated from the curriculum in many elementary schools.  The common core curriculum instead focuses on learning the keypad—fingering optional.   This decision is controversial.

Arguments abound for learning cursive:

• People need to be able to read old family letters and historical documents.
• “I learned it, Sonny, and by golly, you will too.”
• Cursive is an art form used by previous generations, and we should appreciate it.
• People can handwrite using cursive faster than they can print.

Likewise, arguments abound for abandoning cursive:

• People today rarely need to read cursive. Printed versions of old documents are online.
• There isn’t time to learn everything, so less important skills must be abandoned.
• The curriculum must stress what is important for students’ futures, namely, keyboarding and using computer software like Google docs and Zoom.

Another argument favoring cursive is that serious writers write better when writing in longhand.  (Three times using the word “write” in that sentence—hmm.)  Some excellent writers today write first drafts in longhand, revise in longhand, rewrite in longhand, and only then put their work into a typewriter or computer.  But I suspect many others—a majority—compose on their iPads or laptops without a loss in creativity.

More disturbing to me than the loss of cursive skills is the incursion of text messaging forms into non-text writing.  I teach a high school student who does not use capitals and who abbreviates every other phrase.  I suspect this way of writing will become the norm in years ahead.  And just like resurrecting cursive, there’s little we can do about it.  “What works” will win.  Methods of writing evolve.

In 2010 the Common Core State Standards dropped cursive handwriting as a subject to be taught in US schools.  Despite that, several states have either passed laws requiring cursive instruction, or have included cursive instruction and mastery in state standards.  Those states* are

Alabama—Lexi’s Law requires students to be able to write legibly in cursive by the end of third grade.

Arizona—Students begin to learn cursive in kindergarten and are expected to be proficient by the end of sixth grade.

Arkansas—Cursive must be taught in public schools by the end of third grade.

California—Cursive is taught in third grade.

Florida—Cursive is taught in third, fourth and fifth grades.

Georgia—Cursive is taught in third and fourth grade.

Louisiana—Public and charter schools must begin teaching cursive by third grade and must incorporate it in the curriculum through 12^th grade.  The law was introduced when a surveyor told a Republican state legislator that he could not find young people who could read notes on old land documents.

Maryland—Cursive is taught in third, fourth and fifth grades.

Mississippi—cursive is taught in third through eighth grades.

Ohio—Kindergarteners must begin to write in cursive and be able to write legibly by the end of fifth grade.

North Carolina—Students must be able to write legibly in cursive by the end of fifth grade.

Oklahoma—Cursive is taught in third and fourth grades.

South Carolina—State law requires students write legibly in cursive by the end of fifth grade.

Tennessee—By state law, students are required to be able to write legibly in cursive.  The State Department of Education decides when students are instructed in cursive.

Texas—Second graders will learn how to write cursive letters; third graders will learn to write cursive words; and fourth graders will complete their assignments in cursive, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.

Virginia—Cursive is taught in third, fourth and fifth grades.

West Virginia—Cursive is taught in second, third and fourth grades.

*according to the Southern Regional Education Board, October 2016, and other sources