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Education Jan 29, 2024
U.S. Constitution. | Photo by Jonathan Thorne CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED
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In a world increasingly dominated by digital devices, California has mandated a return to tradition with the recent reintroduction of cursive writing in public schools for grades one through six. This requirement, backed by state law, strives to ensure students, by the end of sixth grade, are able to read and write in the once-venerated script.
Sixth grader Milo Chang, a student at Orangethorpe Elementary School, finds delight and utility in the practice. “I like it…it’s just fancy, how to write, and it’s fun learning new letters,” said Chang, who also believes cursive has improved his print handwriting.
The reintroduction, sponsored by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, was inspired by a conversation with former Governor Jerry Brown in 2016. “Jerry Brown was the governor and he invited a group of us to dinner. I sat right next to him and he said, ‘What do you do?’ And I said ‘I’m an elementary grade teacher,’ and he immediately said, ‘You need to bring back cursive writing,'” Quirk-Silva recalled.
While groundwork for this skill was present in California’s Common Core standards, the quality of instruction remained lackluster, prompting poor outcomes. The new law aims to rectify this, leading Orangethorpe teacher Pamela Keller to encourage her students. “A lot of my students will say, ‘Oh, it’s so hard to write letters.’ And so we tell them, ‘Okay, this is going to make you smarter. It’s going to make some connections in your brain,” Keller explained.
Leslie Zoroya, project director for reading language arts at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, echoed the developmental benefits, noting that cursive writing activates different neural networks beneficial to language development. Cursive also offers a tangible link to the past, allowing the study of historical documents like the Constitution.
The California Early Literacy Coalition and experts like Megan Potente of Decoding Dyslexia CA and Marshall Tuck of EdVoice emphasize the importance of robust literacy, particularly for the state’s most vulnerable students, including many Black and Latino children. Their recommendations for the 2024 legislative agenda revolve around science-based reading strategies to ensure proficiency by third grade and bridge persistent educational gaps. Neuroscientists like Claudia Aguirre and occupational therapy experts such as Kelsey Voltz-Poremba from the University of Pittsburgh suggest cursive may enhance cognitive development and learning outcomes.
However, this policy marks a larger global debate on handwriting’s relevance as countries like the UK, Spain, Italy, and France continue to teach cursive, while Finland has discarded it. Mississippi has seen promising results from literacy reforms based on the science of reading.
In California, educators and policymakers seek to balance digital literacy with traditional skills, with the exploration of cursive’s cognitive benefits ongoing amidst this digital age. As the state grapples with the task of equipping its youth with diverse abilities, one fact remains clear: there’s still room for the elegant swirls of cursive writing in the tapestry of education.
As reported by nationworldnews.com, breakinglatest.news and edsource.org.
