Cursive Handwriting: It’s more than just a signature

Last month, Senate Bill 83 (co-authored by Senator Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) and Senator Tim Skinner (D-Terre Haute) was introduced in the Indiana State Legislature, to keep cursive handwriting in Indiana’s public schools. The Indiana Senate has approved the bill, taking an important step in helping Indiana take the lead in ensuring that its students are taught all the important foundation skills they need to succeed.

Bill 83 has now been referred to the Indiana House of Representatives.

Email or call your State Representative  today and urge them to vote to keep cursive in the classroom. Let them know that cursive is crucial for Indiana’s elementary students:

1. Cursive is the fastest, easiest way for upper elementary students to put their thoughts on paper. Cursive is faster than printing, and greater writing speed allows writers to write better by lessening the burden on working memory (Peverly, 2006).
    
2. It builds the brain. Cursive helps develop cognitive abilities, which are the “brain-based skills” needed to carry out tasks (Morton 2011). In fact, learning cursive improves a child’s fluency, ensuring a “secure neural network” (Sortino 2011).
    
3. Communicating their thoughts depends on it! If teachers cannot read a child’s writing on homework and tests, they cannot properly grade their work, and if students cannot read their own notes, they cannot use them. The more fluid and automatic a student’s handwriting is, the more time he/she will have to concentrate on the content of writing.
    
4. Fluent, legible handwriting boosts grades and test scores. Teachers have indicated that difficulty with handwriting results in lower grades on written assignments, has a negative effect on the quantity and quality of students’ writing, and influences how long students take to complete written assignments (Graham 2008).
    
5. Kids need it later in school and as adults. Handwriting is especially important for note taking in middle and high school, SAT tests, and bar exams. For adults, a recent Monster.com search reveals that positions in security systems, healthcare and engineering, as well as childcare providers, writers and utility workers, require legible handwriting in their job descriptions, underscoring the ongoing value of handwriting in the workplace and the importance of the skill for lifelong success.

Email or call your State Representative, to let them know Indiana’s kids deserve to learn all the important foundation skills they need to succeed.