One of my grandsons sheepishly came to me recently and handed back a birthday card we had given him earlier in the day and explained that, although he was a seventh grader, he couldn’t read our note to him because he is unable to read cursive writing. To say my wife and I were shocked is a huge understatement.

That experience prompted me to do some research on the issue of cursive writing instruction in America’s public elementary schools, and what I discovered was another shock for this Baby Boomer who learned cursive handwriting in elementary “penmanship” class.

Arne Duncan, President Barack Obama’s secretary of Education in 2010, was a strong advocate of a revised version of the Common Core Standards for public schools that emphasized teaching of digital skills like keyboarding but dropped a previously included provision encouraging inclusion in elementary school curricula of cursive handwriting instruction. The revised version that Duncan strongly supported was developed by members of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

The CCSSO, which was the prime mover in the revision, “is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of the public officials who head departments of public education in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, the Bureau of Indian Education, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Department of Education (DOE).

At the time, all 50 states included cursive handwriting instruction, but, as officials sought to adapt to the Digital Age in American society, particularly during and in the wake of the COVID pandemic, only 14 were left by 2016. Virginia, where our grandson lives, was among the states dropping cursive instruction. Now, with the addition this year of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a total of 27 states either require or strongly encourage their public schools to include instruction and practice in cursive skills at some point from the second to the fifth grade. Some states also require testing to demonstrate proficiency.

One of the principal authors of the revised Common Core standards explained in a 2016 Education Week article the reasoning behind the change. “We thought that more and more of student communications and adult communications are via technology. And knowing how to use technology to communicate and to write was most critical for students,” said Sue Pimentel, adding that “sometimes cursive writing takes an enormous amount of instructional time. You could be spending time on other things rather than students practicing cursive writing. It’s really a matter of emphasis."

So, what’s behind the return to teaching our children how to write cursively? Are there valuable skills learned as a result of acquiring cursive handwriting skills at a young age, or does the partial return of such instruction in public schools during the past decade merely reflect the influence of concerned Baby Boomers alarmed by grandchildren who can type on a keyboard, but who can’t read what America’s Founders declared in a copy of the original Declaration of Independence?

According to Dr. Christina Bretz of Learning Without Tears, an educational group that emphasizes the importance of teaching cursive handwriting at the elementary level, there are at least three ways in which research has shown acquiring such skill improves cognition.

Citing the journal ScienceDirect, Bretz said, “Studies have shown that when children write in cursive, there is more activation in both hemispheres of the brain than when children are typing on a keyboard.” She adds that “cursive helps the brain learn and recall information better,” according to an original research article in another journal. Finally, she contends that research shows “learning to form letters by hand contributes to better reading and spelling.”

Similar arguments have been made by state lawmakers across the nation as the number of states requiring cursive instruction has steadily increased since 2016, according to a report in the NEA Today earlier this year. “In advocating for new cursive mandates, state lawmakers insist students know how to sign and read important and historical documents. But it’s the impact on motor skills, spelling, and reading comprehension that has been the most effective selling point.

“Research has shown that cursive handwriting enhances a child’s brain development, including memorization, and improves fine motor skills,” explained California lawmaker Sharon Quirk-Silva, lead sponsor of the state’s cursive law that passed in 2023. These findings have been repeated by lawmakers in every state that has passed cursive mandates.”

The cursive issue may seem unimportant against a backdrop of continuing controversies regarding the suffocating influence of public school history and civics curricula that is shaped by critical race theory . Even more concerning is the complete absence in public school curricula of materials devoted to the role and influence of the Christian faith in the founding of the United States, as demonstrated by a recent analysis of titles recommended for instruction on America’s 250th birthday.

So here’s a thought that everybody involved in such debates ought to favor: How about we return to teaching all of our children how to read and write cursively so they can go back to the founding documents, read them for themselves, and then make up their own minds about how and why the freest, most prosperous nation in human history came to be?