New Law Requiring Cursive Instruction Facing Growing Backlash

A bill signed into law last week by Governor Gavin Newsom that requires cursive to be taught between grades one and six faced growing backlash this week from teachers who say that class time should instead go towards more needed skills.

Assembly Bill 446, authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) states that handwriting instruction will be required from aged one to six, and is to include instruction in cursive or joined italics.

Quirk-Silva moved for the expansion of cursive handwriting classes, previously only taught in grades three and four, because of new research showing that learning cursive helped with brain development and retention skills in younger students.

“Writing in cursive has multiple benefits, including better brain development, retention, and learning in children,” said the Assemblywoman earlier this year. “Writing in cursive helps join the auditory and language centers of the brain. It is also beneficial as an adult; the ability to sign their name in cursive is important for future job applications, writing checks, signing medical forms, obtaining driver’s licenses, and voting.”

Within the legislature, the bill received broad, bipartisan support. Last month, AB 446 passed the Senate 38-0 and the Assembly 79-0. This was followed by Newsom signing the bill into law last Friday.

Supporters of the bill, including several Education departments, praised the passage of the bill. While many repeated the reasons given by Quirk-Silva, others noted that handwriting had benefits over similar taught skills such as keyboarding.

“There are clear connections between the linguistic processes of reading and the motor process of handwriting, which keyboarding skills do not replicate,” added the Los Angeles County Office of Education. “The mechanics of handwriting follows a sequence initiated in the brain, similar to reading — the sound is heard and processed, a letter attached and visualized, then translated into a shape on a page and produced with motor skills that reinforce the direction of lines and shapes to form letters. These letters then connect to form words and meaning is attached.”

However, the last week has shown that a growing number of educators are now worried that too much emphasis has been put on students learning cursive. In particular, many noted that the use of cursive has largely disappeared because of technological advancements, and that brain development and retention can be developed in other ways.

Opposition grows against recently signed AB 446

“Do you know why cursive was even taught in the first place?” said Joy, a private school teacher in Southern California who helped reduce the number of cursive classes being taught at many private schools in the past. “Quills and writing speed. When people wrote everything with fragile writing tools, lifting the pen for every letter reduced the speed of things being written and would lead to more inkblots and damage to the pen.”

“Cursive actually began to go out of favor starting in the 1930s, but was still widely taught to some degree. Ballpoint pens really stopped a lot of the need, as did typewriters, and later, computers. We still teach handwriting, of course, but cursive just isn’t much of a thing now. Most people say now that they just use it for a signature, and you can learn to just do that online now. Cursive is severely outdated.”

“It also got popular because a lot of kids just had bad handwriting and were shamed for it, only to then switch to typing and take off. Same thing goes for kids with disabilities. Many need to type or need technology assistance rather than traditional writing.”

“Now, Quirk-Silva’s arguments are dated. There are many, many other ways besides cursive to help students develop. We still teach handwriting. That isn’t going anywhere. So that argument is moot. She then has a secondary argument of not being able to use cursive to sign their name. But that can be learned on their own or through a parent or from so many other places.”

“Cursive dying out was happening for a reason: It just doesn’t make sense to teach it anymore. It’s like morse code. It still exists and is needed by many people, but you don’t need to learn it unless you need it.”

“A lot of teachers hate that they still have to teach this because of so many other subjects needing more time to help our students grow. From the number of teachers not liking this, you can expect more and more backlash against this very soon.”

AB 446 was signed into law on October 13, 2023.