Quick Take
In 2010, cursive handwriting instruction dropped from California's elementary school standards. A bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October mandates its return to the state's public schools. How will that look in Santa Cruz County?
I see that this week “only” is when I can receive 50% off on kombucha and other probiotic drinks. As I take the sidewalk north, I pass by sweets shop It’Sugar, where a door sign proclaims the virtue of retro candy: It “never gets stale.” A few steps farther and I learn the food kiosk, NahNa, serves up “farm to table Eritrean cuisine.” Cursive seems to be reserved for only the most critical details. Had I started elementary school after 2010, it might all appear as squiggly gibberish.
On a cool Friday morning earlier this month in Fullerton, Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva had a similar experience at two coffee shops she frequents in her district, The Mugs, and Dripp, whose logos each present in their own style of script.
“I don’t think cursive writing is as outdated as people think,” Quirk-Silva, 61, told me over the phone later that afternoon. “I think there is a new vogue in people using it.”
Thanks to the Fullerton assemblymember, cursive will be returning to elementary school classrooms in Santa Cruz County and across the state. After breezing through the legislature with near-unanimous approval in both houses, Gov. Gavin Newsom in October signed Quirk-Silva’s Assembly Bill 446, which took effect Jan. 1. The bill amends the state education code to explicitly call for students in first through sixth grades to receive cursive instruction and know how to read and write in it by the time they leave for middle school.
If you’re of a certain age, you might be surprised to learn that cursive ever left the elementary school curriculum. Those of a younger, digitally native generation might also be surprised — that the state views cursive as something worth knowing for still-younger generations to whom the keyboard or touchscreen is the primary form of written self-expression.
Formally, cursive instruction in California began to fade in 2010 once the federal government dropped it from the Common Core standards, the national benchmark for public school education. According to Education Week, the decision was about priorities, and learning to use technology trumped penmanship. Before that, cursive was most often introduced in third grade, after children are introduced to block lettering.
Claudia Monjaras, assistant superintendent and director of elementary school curriculum at Pajaro Valley Unified School District, told me this was the case in South County. Once cursive dropped from the Common Core standards, Monjaras said it went by the wayside in places like PVUSD. Teachers already have more to instruct than there is time.
“It might have continued for a year or so, but when it wasn’t a standard anymore, teachers had other things they wanted to transition to,” Monjaras said. “Still, some teachers were adamant about continuing it.”
Murry Schekman, PVUSD’s interim superintendent, said at least one third grade teacher still taught cursive in the district, but through the lens of art rather than penmanship. The district, he said, is putting together a program for the new requirement. Monjaras told me among the first steps in reintroducing cursive to PVUSD students will be teaching the teachers first.
“I don’t like to see things added to education code unless we feel like it’s an incredibly necessary thing,” Calden told me. “What’s difficult is finding the time in the day where teachers can add it. We already have way more to teach than we have time for. What goes by the wayside to make room for cursive?”
Calden said she would have rather seen penmanship emphasized in the bill, rather than strictly cursive, as penmanship has really fallen off as a skill among students. The same is true of adults: A 2018 study, funded by Bic, found that among the 2,000 adults surveyed, 45% struggle to read their own handwriting, which has led to miscommunications in their professional life. That’s not specific to cursive, but handwriting in general.
The decision to emphasize cursive as opposed to handwriting in general has drawn some scrutiny. Quirk-Silva, an elementary school teacher for more than 30 years, has argued that not only can cursive enhance “brain development, retention and learning in children,” but that it is a practical skill in adult life as well. Knowledge of cursive helps when signing checks and documents, and the ability to read primary historical documents. However, studies cited by legislative analysts say that while teaching handwriting, as opposed to strictly keyboarding, is worthwhile, there is no definitive evidence that cursive breeds greater benefits than simple printing.
The ability to access historical documents, however, has stuck with some. In a 2022 article for the Atlantic titled “Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive,” Harvard research professor Drew Gilpin Faust wrote about how a student in her undergraduate seminar said he was unable to read the primary source records in a Civil War book he found because he couldn’t understand cursive. Shocked, Gilpin Faust surveyed the class: Only about a third could read cursive, and even fewer could write in it.
For Scott Turnbull, superintendent of Soquel Unified School District, if lack of knowledge in cursive means a barrier to accessing history, he wants to knock that down.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.