Today’s students can write a short story with their thumbs in just a few minutes, thanks to their obsession with smartphones, but can they write in a flowing script?
Pennsylvania is taking steps to ensure they can, with the state house overwhelmingly passing a bill earlier this week that would require all students in both private and public elementary schools to learn cursive. The vote was 195–8. The bill now moves to the state senate.
“In our digital world, cursive has fallen by the wayside, but there are many reasons for students to get a basic grasp on cursive writing,” said Rep. Dane Watro (R), who sponsored the bill.
Cursive has been out of vogue for 15 years, after schools began adopting a Common Core curriculum, which de-emphasized the writing style. Pennsylvania is the latest state to move to make it part of the early education process once again. Two dozen states have done so previously.
It’s more than just a desire to keep the style alive. Research from the University of California, Riverside shows that cursive writing enhances brain development, particularly in areas related to language, memory, and fine motor skills. “When students engage in the intricate movements required for cursive writing,” the school notes, “this activates different parts of the brain compared to typing or printing.”
(California mandated cursive writing education in schools last year.)
There’s also an argument that notes taken in cursive can be better retained and comprehended by the writer, since it’s a smoother, uninterrupted process.
Representative Watro points to another advantage of learning to read and write cursive: understanding history. Countless documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, were originally written in cursive.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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