Early in December of 2023, Pennsylvania State Representative, Joe Adams introduced the idea that cursive writing should be mandatory in Pennsylvania schools. 

Adams explained to ABC Action News how using cursive is practical, mainly involving legal matters. 

“Legal documents need to be signed in cursive,” states Adams, Pennsylvania State Representative. “If you want to know about the history of the United States, you want to read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and any Civil War documents you have to be able to read cursive.”

Adams is one of many representatives who believe cursive is a useful skill for students to learn. FoxNews reports, “Twenty-one states have cursive writing mandates in their curriculum.”

Most of these cursive advocators mention that many studies have indicated that cursive writing is beneficial for brain development.

According to the National Education Association, “Many studies have shown that learning cursive not only improves retention and comprehension, it engages the brain on deep levels as students learn to join letters in a continuous flow.” 

Despite this, many still believe that cursive is not worth teaching in school. These individuals argue that cursive isn’t used as much in society as it used to be.

“Cursive isn’t really used today in society,” explains Meron Domanski, 10. “You only need to briefly be taught the alphabet, but you don’t need much else.”

To bring the public’s opinion into the conversation, Action News posted a poll on X (Twitter) questioning if cursive should be brought back into schools. This poll was viewed over a thousand times and the majority of voters ruled in favor of cursive being brought back into education. 

“Cursive is beneficial for writing professionally such as signing your name and writing fast,” states Amie Garcia, 11. “It’s a skill that is utilized in life consistently even though a lot of people disregard learning it.”