Cursive writing makes a comeback in Pennsylvania classrooms
Pennsylvania is now requiring all public and private schools to teach cursive, joining a growing number of states reversing course after many districts phased it out in favor of technology.
At Garnet Valley Elementary School in Concord Township, students in Mary Magrann's fifth grade class swapped their iPads for pencils as they learned the looping script.
For 11-year-old Ryan Larkin, cursive is both new and challenging.
"I think the letter Z is the hardest letter to write because it's so many curving lines," Ryan said.
Right now, cursive is only being taught in some classrooms. School leaders said the district is planning a full rollout this fall, with all fourth graders expected to learn the skill.
Garnet Valley Elementary School Principal Susan Papson said the district originally phased out cursive writing in 2010. She said the biggest challenge with adding it back has been finding time in an already packed curriculum.
"When the decision was made at the state level to move forward with implementing cursive back in the district, it was looking across our scope and sequence and finding the best place to meet student need, also honoring the very complex job that a homeroom teacher has," Papson said. "So finding that perfect fit, and for us that's going to be in our library classrooms in fourth grade."
Teachers said they're already hearing positive feedback from parents.
"The parents are excited about it, absolutely, because the parents, too, have learned how to do cursive when they were in school," Magrann said.
In an increasingly digital world, advocates said cursive writing can help improve memory and cognitive thinking.
Fourth grader Griff Taylor says he's already noticing a difference.
"If there wasn't cursive, our signatures would just look, it would be normal writing, but it would just be blank," Griff said. "Cursive really gives a pump into writing."