Ryan Millan- Pulley
Editorial Intern

Multiple Missouri House Representatives are pushing legislation that’d require schools to teach and grade cursive writing, with the goal of making students proficient at reading and writing in this style by the end of fifth grade. HB 1876 and HB 2115 are backed by Rep. Renee Reuter (District 012) and Rep. Peggy McGaugh (District 007), who argue that knowing cursive is important for creating signatures and reading historical documents. These bills would also bring Missouri in line with around 24 other states that require cursive writing with a few examples being California, Texas, and Florida.

When I was that age, I was attending a private K-12 school, and was briefly taught cursive at random points between third and fifth grade. I’m 21 years old now, have held multiple jobs and completed nearly four years of college. 

At no point in my life, outside school, was any cursive knowledge required beyond my written signature. Even then, my signature has changed over the years to only be a few cursive letters blended with some distinct scribbles for the sake of speed. 

To get a more antiquated perspective on this, I asked my father, who was born in 1955. He claimed that only specialists and historians need to know cursive in these modern days, but referenced studies that show knowing cursive improves cognitive ability. 

While students shouldn’t be printing their signatures, do they really need in-depth knowledge of a different style of writing just to avoid their signatures getting forged? This is especially worth asking with the advent of electronic signatures, which my father brought up as well. I’ve personally seen them on documents ranging from tax forms to job and college applications.

Cursive is a generalized term that refers to any handwriting penned in a joined and flowing manner. It potentially arose to make up for the limitations of quill pens, which are fragile and would easily splatter ink if used incorrectly. English cursive dates back to around the 11th Century, with it beginning to resemble its modern form in the 17th. But even then, it was far from uniform and could vary heavily from person to person.

For those of you with young adult children or even older teens, has your kid ever needed to read a historical document in cursive that wasn’t in a school or museum? I know I haven’t. It’s incredibly easy to find both online and physical copies of the Constitution or Declaration of Independence in regular print. Even if something obscure hasn’t been archived or transcribed, it’s just as easy to find examples or reference sheets with cursive writing that any capable adult can use to transcribe it themselves. 

I can see where these legislators are coming from, though. People in today’s world can often be over-reliant on technology, especially with the corporate push for AI to do your thinking for you. I do think cursive is an interesting exercise worth touching on briefly.  But with how little this writing shows up in everyday life, I think mandating cursive instruction to this extent would be a waste of time during a vital period in a child’s education. 

Generational documents, such as recipes and letters, may be lost to those unable to read cursive. Missouri legislators have introduced bills to provide cursive instruction in elementary schools state-wide.

All photos by Dorri Partain