Ohio legislators passed a bill this week that would promote cursive handwriting in the state’s elementary schools.
The bill passed the Ohio House in an 87-4 vote on Wednesday and is now moving to the state Senate. The bill would not mandate that students learn cursive, but would require the state board of education to adopt a “model curriculum” for instructing cursive handwriting in kindergarten through fifth grade. Students would learn to compose letters and words by the time they reach third grade, and readable documents by the time they reach fifth. If the bill passes, it could be put into action as soon as the 2019-2020 school year.
State Rep. Marilyn Slaby, R-Copley, who introduced the bill together with state Rep. Andy Brenner, R-Powell, argues cursive is important for signing checks and reading historical documents.
“Our history is all written in cursive,” Slaby said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Other lawmakers disagreed, including Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain. He said he would rather have students learn computer programming or a foreign language.
“I haven’t used cursive since the seventh grade,” Ramos said. “I’ve survived without this skill.”
After adopting national Common Core curriculum standards, several states stopped requiring cursive instruction, since the curriculum doesn’t require it.
There are currently eight states that require or encourage cursive to be taught in their schools, according to research from the National Conference of State Legislatures: Arkansas, California, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Another five state legislatures, including in Ohio, proposed cursive legislation during this year’s session. At least six more states make cursive curriculum requirements through regulation in administrative codes, or through standards set by state education agencies.
