{"id":159498,"date":"2026-04-07T15:01:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159498\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:01:05","slug":"new-law-brings-cursive-handwriting-back-to-pennsylvania-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159498\/","title":{"rendered":"New law brings cursive handwriting back to Pennsylvania classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid\u00a0growing\u00a0attention\u00a0to\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0in public education, more teachers are revisiting historically human abilities \u2013 such as cursive writing.<\/p>\n

In one recent example, Pennsylvania has\u00a0brought\u00a0back\u00a0cursive<\/a>\u00a0as a required subject\u00a0for private and public schools in a bill passed this February, set to\u00a0take effect\u00a0this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cPennsylvania and many other states ditched cursive writing as a mandatory subject in the early 2010s when they adopted Common Core education standards, which focused more on keyboard skills,\u201d Axios Pittsburgh wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, many teachers described their \u201clonging to go back to a time when things were a little simpler,\u201d according to the news article. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpending valuable class time teaching students to put pen to paper is a nationwide trend, despite students using computers for a growing share of assignments.\u201d <\/p>\n

Benefits of cursive for self-development, \u201chistorical literacy\u201d <\/p>\n

As previously reported<\/a> by The Lion, advocates of cursive and other handwriting forms highlight their personal benefits. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why you educate yourself is for self-development,\u201d said Jake Weidmann, a world Master Penman. \u201cIt\u2019s not just to turn something out that is quickly executed. It\u2019s like, \u2018If the machine can do it for you, you might as well abdicate it to the machine.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all well and good for the sake of the machine but what does that actually do for your own personal development? How does that change the way that you think, the way that you function, and the way that you perceive the world?\u201d <\/p>\n

Studies also note the way cursive can help children improve their reading, writing and spelling skills. <\/p>\n

For instance, brain scans on children who learned cursive \u201cfound that the different parts of the brain which are engaged are similar to those that adults typically use when writing and doing higher reasoning,\u201d Weidmann explained in a TedTalk. \u201c[But] the screen went blank when the kids were doing typing because it didn\u2019t involve the same type of tactile movement.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cursive could also be considered a patriotic pastime, argues Republican State Rep. Dane Watro, who sponsored the bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond its developmental advantages, cursive is a key to unlocking historical documents like the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution,\u201d explained<\/a> the senator\u2019s office in a statement. \u201cPreserving the ability to read and write in cursive ensures future generations can access and understand these foundational texts, strengthening civic engagement and historical literacy.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid\u00a0growing\u00a0attention\u00a0to\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0in public education, more teachers are revisiting historically human abilities \u2013 such as cursive writing. In one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56159,393,28,30,29,38665,38634],"class_list":{"0":"post-159498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-cursive","9":"tag-legislation","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-public-education","14":"tag-writing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}