The Case for Cursive, and how YOU can speak up!
Montessorium's Case for Cursive; click to see the original on their website
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States in green require Cursive education. States in blue are pending cursive education legislation. States in red have no mention of cursive education. States in orange leave it up to the individual school districts.
Cursive is no longer being practiced or even taught in many public school classrooms. Teaching technology and computer devices has reduced, or in some cases eliminated, the time needed each day to teach cursive writing, and thus, the necessity for practicing handwriting in homework assignments. Recognition software notwithstanding, our children still need to be able to write.
The Common Core Curriculum cannot evaluate teachers by their students' handwriting, as they can test for math and reading, so handwriting has now been classified as an optional "Art." Teachers under the No Child Left Behind program have been instructed to accept homework in any form (typewritten, word processed, handwritten, or printed). Many students print awkwardly into adulthood, their writing never maturing. They've printed since they were in pre-school and are not made to practice penmanship. However, empirical evidence shows that this lack of connected writing training is not benefiting our young students today. In fact, a thorough examination of best practiced research has proven that connected writing (cursive) benefits memory retention, mental compartmentalization, original thought processing, as well as focused attention, respect for boundaries, and expression of individualism and creativity. We invite you to check out our pages titled Research, Newsworthy Articles and Blogs for additional materials written by renown scientists, researchers, peer review journals, authors, newspaper journalists, and more. If you wish to make inquiries about the state of cursive writing training in your own area, or let your legislators or schools know that you want to see cursive writing continue to be taught in your public education system, here are some locators for school districts, and state and federal lawmakers that you can search by your Zip Code: Please contact them to let them know how you feel about this matter. Your voice matters! Speak up. 
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