Cursive handwriting makes a comeback

For many teenagers, cursive might as well be cuneiform.

Having never learned the skill in school, they just can’t make sense of the loops, ligatures, and curls in that hastily written note you pinned to their door, “Clean your room!!!” (Or so they say.)

Technology is partly to blame. With the near-ubiquity of computers in the classroom, school curriculums shifted their focus in the early 2000s to “keyboard proficiency” rather than teach cursive.

Another nail in cursive’s coffin? Recent research that shows the supposed cognitive benefits of learning cursive weren’t actually real.  

But just like the measles, cursive is making a comeback in America’s schools. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a bill that mandates cursive handwriting be taught throughout the state’s public elementary schools.

It’s a growing trend: more than a dozen states, as well as New York City, have all reintroduced cursive handwriting back to the classroom.

But for now, at least, you should probably keep printing out those notes to your kids.