Pennsylvania schools will be required to teach cursive again starting in April

FOX29 Philadelphia ^ | 03.09.26 | Isabel Soisson

[big truck]

PENNSYLVANIA - Starting next month, all public and private schools in Pennsylvania will be required to reintroduce cursive handwriting into their curriculum.

---

TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS:

[big truck]

I'd be so screwed if I was in elementary school now. I can barely print.

[PeterPrinciple]

There are good reasons for this. eye hand coordenation, thinking skills to interpret, teaching grammar and logic. etc.

[PROCON]

𝓒𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓸𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓡𝓐𝓒𝓘𝓢𝓣!

[Jane Long]

My gosh .... when and why did they ever take it away???

[wally_bert]

Same here.

Double whammy, I’m left handed.

[ansel12]

I don’t know how many millions didn’t learn how to read and write cursive, but now they will have to go through life surrounded by older and younger people, and most or many of their own age group, who all know and use handwriting, their entire life with many situations similar to being illiterate.

[big truck]

I have t used cursive since the 9th grade. I print everything now - and that’s hard enough to read as it is.

[Fungi]

Had a friend, a chef, who could not read a handwritten invoice. He was essentially illiterate, as you point out.

[wally_bert]

I scribble a signature, just about every thing else comes out of a printer.

[doorgunner69]

Yeah, once I took drafting in H.S. I mostly print.
Cannot read my own handwriting.

[big truck]

I just scribble my initials. There are no decipherable letters contained anywhere in my signature.

I don’t even know if my signature would hold up in court.

[Sacajaweau]

I do historical research....and all the documents I read are in cursive. We were taught cursive at age 7. (I'm 82.)

I taught my granddaughter cursive....AND the times tables.

My kids played "store" when they were little with a old red toy cash register. Every kid had one.

[NEMDF]

I can write BACKWARDS in cursive. I don’t know how or why I ever developed that, but I do. Probably in high school, I was pretty bored, so took notes backwards. A strange quirk, right?

[TexasGator]

“I do historical research....and all the documents I read are in cursive.”

AI reads them for me. Gives me an organized text document. Even annotated scribbles in the margins.

[big truck]

I just got used to writing directions while I was driving (before GPS) soy handwriting is mostly chicken scratch.

Mrs. Big Truck has exemplary handwriting. She is a former 8th grade English teacher turned homeschooling Mom who now has her own tutoring business and teaches reading and penmanship. She’s going to make a killing teaching children how to write in cursive.

[big truck]

Now you’re just bragging.😅

[asinclair]

Let me add to the chorus. I learned to print properly in drafting class, calligraphy training, and early programming with forms. I bedevil a number of pompous people whose forms have six-point type by being able to print at a four-point height with a good accountant's pen. Also, I'm a cold composition font nut, adding new faces to my computer on a regular basis.

Cursive? Almost illegible unless I really, really concentrate. People look at my signature and call it a "mosquito squash." Printing, for me, is faster.

Now, I used to have to decode letters from my mother (RIP), because at first glance her handwriting was bumps on a line; there were letterforms, but they were VERY small.

That said, I applaud the reintroduction of cursive to the curriculum. In particular, cursive by the female hand; in a large number of samples the result is pretty.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

When I was in school in PA (many, many moons ago) we learned the Painter System. Old Mr. Painter himself, who was like 120 years old, would come around and grade our samples. Everything had to be perfect or you got a frown and a headshake from the old gentleman. I got a lot of frowns and headshakes. To this day I use a hybrid between cursive and printing - sort of printing with connected letters that nobody but I can read. Mr. Painter spins once in his grave every time I write something.

[Biblebelter]

Both sides of my family were very conservative.

Good handwriting was a matter of pride.

My grandparents were always interested in seeing my handwriting.

When I wrote thank you notes to my relatives for Xmas and birthdays my mother would always make sure that they were in my best handwriting.

I probably worked harder to get an A in handwriting than any other subject in elementary school.

At seventy-five, I still take pride in my handwriting.

[Jane Long]

We had penmanship awards that were based on accuracy, legibility and aesthetics of our cursive handwriting.

These awards are likely illegal, now.

Cursive helps with fine motor skills, cognitive development ... and, I always felt .... expediency.

I know some say they can print faster than writing in cursive. I find the opposite to be true.