As of 2010, the Common Core State Standards for English no longer require cursive writing. The Common Core State Standards are a U.S. education initiative that seeks to bring and diverse state curricula into alignment with one another by following the principles of a standards-based education reform. Many school districts have already eliminated teaching cursive writing stating that teachers don’t have time to teach cursive along with their required standardized test curriculum. Students are instead required to be proficient in keyboarding by the fourth grade.

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, “handwriting is a complex process of managing written language by coordinating the eyes, arms, hands, pencil grip, letter formation and body posture.”  The development of a child’s handwriting can provide clues to developmental problems, the same cannot be said for keyboarding.

With the elimination of cursive writing in elementary schools children will be unable to read historical documents such as the Constitution or old family letters passed down through generations. The removal of cursive writing may also inhibit the child’s learning abilities and motor skills.  Anne Mangen at the University of Stavanger’s Reading Centre in Norway has extensively researched the importance of writing with a pen. According to Mangen, writing by hand gives the brain feedback for motor skills. The touching of a pencil and paper ignites the senses. Mangen also found that different parts of the brain are activated when children read letters learned by handwriting. A 2010 study by the Carnegie Corporation of New York shows that a student’s reading skills can improve if they learn writing skills and write often. (Yahoo! News)

During an interview with NPR, Vanderbilt University Professor Steve Graham mentioned that the brain lights up less when typing than when writing. He stated that writing is a more complex skill than typing. Other studies indicate that students who use cursive often perform better on tests because they can write their thoughts down faster than those who print.

With the removal of cursive writing in schools parents are encouraged to teach their children cursive at home. The U.S. Department of Education has posted tips for parents on ways to motivate their children to learn how to write. Parents are asked to make it fun, try using different pens and pencils or use writing grips.

Many parents, educators and politicians are still fighting for cursive writing to be put back into the Common Core State Standards for English. From the classrooms to the Senate Chambers the battle for cursive writing continues but regardless of the outcome, cursive writing seems to be joining it’s historical documents in which it was used, a part of history.