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BY JILLIAN O’CONNOR
»What Parents
Are Talking About
With cursive writing, kids “can go to their ideas,” says cursive writing instructor Joan Lite Miller.
A case for cursive P H OTO BY JOS H UA H U STO N
IF YOUR KID’S HANDWRITING THROWS YOU FOR A LOOP, A RETURN TO PENMANSHIP MAY BE ON THE HORIZON Cursive writing, once the anticipated instruction of third-grade penmanship that signaled upper-grade work, has been on the wane as schools move toward keyboard communication. In a tech town
like Seattle, where some schools teach with laptops, without textbooks, using online assignments, does cursive writing instruction still have a place? In Washington, cursive is taught at the
discretion of individual teachers or districts, often just once a week during third grade for part of the year. At Catholic schools and Waldorf schools, as well as some Montessori programs, cursive is ingrained in the traditional program and is taught much more widely. State senator Pam Roach sponsored a cursive bill in 2016, but to little effect. (In Alabama, Arizona and North Carolina, cursive instruction recently became law.) At Bryant Elementary in Ravenna, there was talk of starting an afterschool cursive writing through Uplift Tutoring. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE >
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