The House has overwhelmingly passed a bill to adopt a model curriculum for schools to use to teach cursive handwriting to elementary school kids.
Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain) argued against the idea, saying he flunked handwriting in second grade, that his 20-something staff never uses cursive, and that he would rather see the class time used for computer coding or for a foreign language – something for the future rather than of the past. But sponsoring Republican Marilyn Slaby (R-Copley) said there’s an important element Ramos and others learned. “Yours may not be real readable, but you can still read somebody else’s cursive writing,” Slaby said.
Slaby added that cursive is also good for small motor skills. The bill doesn’t require schools to teach cursive, so it’s not a mandate. It passed with just a few no votes.