California enacts law requiring teaching of cursive writing in schools. 17 other states have too.
While much of the world races to put keyboards on as many instruments as possible, one state has just made a law to ensure that students are taught how to put pen to paper.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that requires the teaching of cursive writing across the state.
California Assembly Bill 446 amends the state's education code to include, "instruction in cursive or joined italics in the appropriate grade levels," for grades one through six.
The bill turned law's author, California Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva of Fullerton, told the Sacramento Bee that the bill is intended to help students to be able to read and write in cursive with the benefit of being able read primary source historical documents.
“A lot of the historical documents going back two or three decades are actually in cursive,” Quirk-Silva, a former elementary school teacher, said. “I went on 23andMe looking for some family records and they were all written in cursive.
While the teaching of cursive may feel anachronistic, the skill may help expand the ability of students to learn.
A 2020 study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that students writing in cursive activated different electrical activity in the brain as compared to typing and argued that "young children should learn to write by hand successfully, and, at the same time learn to manage to write on a keyboard."
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Golden State not alone in mandating the teaching of cursive
While California is the latest to add cursive back into its educational standards, it is not alone. 17 states have laws on the books requiring cursive to be taught.
Here they are:
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gov. Gavin Newsom signs law requiring teaching of cursive writing
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