Should cursive still be taught in schools?

A+graded+english+assignment+with+a+note+written+in+cursive+

Holly Adams

A graded english assignment with a note written in cursive

Holly Adams, Reporter

When you sign a document how do you do it? In cursive? In Printed writing? Students across the country all used to learn cursive early in their elementary years; today, this practice is not as popular. 

Mr. Huch, who teaches English 9 and Science Fiction, learned cursive in school. Today he still uses it. 

“I do use it to some degree, but it has changed to a little bit of a hybrid cursive/ print,” Huch said. “I think cursive should be taught, but not with a whole lot of time spent on it. I believe that students should be able to sign their names in cursive.” 

Huch learned cursive in 3rd or 4th grade. “I think it should be taught as part of an Elementary English class,” Mr. Huch stated. 

Philip Helmke, sophomore at CCAHS, started learning in elementary school but was unable to finish. Helmke does not write in cursive today. 

“I just prefer the way I already write,” said Helmke. “[they should] Probably [learn]around fifth [grade] but only for people who would want to learn it.” 

Helmke has some good opinions on cursive but isn’t a huge fan of it. “I think that cursive is nice,[but it’s] occasionally hard to read, and it’s been lightly pushed onto us by older generations causing some people to hate it. It’s just alright really. I wouldn’t want to take the time to learn it now, I’m already used to my writing style, and learning a whole new method again seems too tedious.”

Josh Oberg, who teaches geometry and trig, learned cursive when he was in second grade. He still uses it today. “Cursive should be taught because it is a ’standard’ form of writing which allows everyone to communicate their ideas efficiently.” Oberg believes the learning of this style belongs in “Early elementary, it would allow students to learn it at an early age.” 

  Luke DiLorenzo, 9th grader at CCAHS, learned cursive in about 5th grade for only a month. When looking at learning cursive luke thought it would be fun. 

“I would like to learn cursive just because I would work on my signature and would like to write in cursive because my handwriting is bad.” Luke thinks that it should be taught in middle school during their first or second year. “It’s to understand cursive because later in your jobs, people could write in cursive and it’s good to understand it.” Looking at cursive Luke would like to learn how to write better. “ I would love to learn cursive in high school so I could write my signature better and just [to] write in cursive.” 

While this is still a topic that is being debated the Legislative Services Agency had estimated that it will cost $15 per student and $25 per teacher for SF 2351. To teach cursive this could cost more than half-million dollars. There are 35,253 third graders around.  Because there are so many students the cost could range from $400,000 – $575,000. The senate of Education committee has been debating this and has approved SF 2351.