Cursive is making a comeback in schools across the nation after taking a back seat for the past several years.
Alabama and Louisiana passed laws in favor of bringing cursive back to the classroom last year, joining a dozen other states that require cursive in public schools, according to Time magazine.
The country’s largest public school system has supported this move, as New York City schools — consisting of more than a million students — now require educators to teach cursive, starting in the third grade.
“It’s definitely not necessary but I think it’s, like, cool to have it,” said Emily Ma, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Ma had never learned cursive up to this point.
New York state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis thought it was time to put cursive back in the schools when she came across an 18-year-old at a voter registration event who wrote his name in block letters, Time noted.
“I said to him, ‘No, you have to sign here,’” Malliotakis said, according to Time. “And he said, ‘That is my signature. I never learned script.”
Following this encounter, Malliotakis went to city education officials to voice her concerns about the absence of cursive in school curriculums.
That prompted Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina to issue a handbook to principals of New York City public schools. The handbook is centered on teaching cursive writing.
This shift in momentum comes after years where cursive writing has taken a back seat to computers, cell phones, tablets, and other forms of technology, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Since 2010, many states have placed a focus on the Common Core curriculum, which doesn’t include handwriting.
However, there are many proponents of cursive that believe teaching it is a must.
According to those proponents, cursive is a skill that allows students to test their creativity and express themselves better in writing.
Some have even said teaching cursive in the schools has the potential to help students score better on the SATs.
“It’s a really fascinating way to write, and I really think that everybody should learn about writing in script,” said Araceli Lazaro, a proponent of cursive writing, according to Time.
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