To paraphrase Mark Twain's famous 1897 quote, reports of the death of cursive writing are an exaggeration.

In fact, a copy of his hand-written note – including scratch-outs – are available on the Internet, the very technology some say is the death knell of continuing the instruction of cursive writing in elementary schools.

The cursive instruction requirement has been absent from Illinois Learning Standards since 1997, leaving it up to school districts whether to provide instruction time for it. But the art of script remains a standard in second and third grades in local Kane County schools, as educators believe it should remain part of the curriculum.

In St. Charles District 303 and Geneva District 304, cursive is part of the curriculum, but is not taught as a separate subject as it is in Batavia District 101 and Kaneland District 302.

"We think that it is important to teach the physical act of writing cursive and understanding cursive," said Brad Newkirk, chief academic officer for Batavia schools. "We are teaching the fine motor skills to produce it and to understand it when they encounter it in their real lives."

Andrew Barrett, interim director of curriculum and instruction for the Batavia School District, said it is something students learn at a young age.

"By the time students are in third grade, they have learned cursive," Barrett said. "I can tell you certainly it is our job as educators to re-evaluate what we need to be teaching our students and a lot of people are evaluating cursive and its significance in terms of classroom instruction."

The question is about allocating time teach it.

"There are only so many hours in a day," said Adam Law, principal of Heartland Elementary School in Geneva. "I think students are using new technology in ways we – in previous generations – never anticipated. It is extremely important that they know how to type well and quickly. Is [cursive] still worth teaching? We are having that conversation."

Still, cursive does not have the same emphasis as in the past, said Shelley Hueber, principal of John Shields Elementary School in Sugar Grove in the Kaneland district.

"They are not graded on penmanship like when I was younger," Hueber said.

"In fourth grade, teachers strongly recommend that they write in cursive, but they do not get graded down if they don't."

Hueber said handwriting's necessity falls by the wayside at college and in careers, as job applicants generally apply online, rarely if ever putting pen to paper anymore.

"You might have beautiful penmanship, but nobody will know it anyway," Hueber said. "Parents really want the handwriting, but I think it's a lost art. Will we [still teach it] in five, seven, 10 years?"

The best reason to teach it now, Hueber said, is to build stamina and fine motor skills.

"Spelling will be the next thing," Hueber said. "With texting and emailing, spelling is not a big thing. My kids ask why I'm spelling the whole word."



'It's part of being a literate person'

Holy Cross Catholic School in Batavia and St. Peter Catholic School in Geneva both teach cursive writing, as does Faith Christian Academy in Geneva.

Faith Christian Principal Ruth Clapper believes in teaching cursive writing because of its historical purpose – and because research that supports learning cursive writing affects brain development.

"It's part of being a literate person that you know how to sign your name properly and write a letter properly," Clapper said. "It may be old-fashioned, but it's part of your education."

Clapper cited the research of Karin James, an assistant professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at Indiana University in Bloomington. James took two groups of 4- and 5-year-old children who could not read and used a functional MRI to scan their brains' activity while learning to print, and then to type.

"One group practiced printing letters; the other group heard and practiced saying the letters. After training, brain scans were again taken," James wrote.

"Only the group that had printing experience showed brain activation in regions that are known to respond to letters in literate adults – that is, their brain activation became more adult-like," James wrote. "We think that this primes them to learn to read."

But when children practiced typing the letters, they did not show brain activation similar to adults, James wrote.

"In terms of cursive, we really don't know whether or not this will differ from printing," James wrote.

Gerry E. Conti, an assistant professor and director of the Human Movement Laboratory, Occupational Therapy, Department of Health Care Sciences for Wayne State University in Detroit, said when children learn to print and then write in cursive, they are developing motor skills to use with fine coordinated tasks.

"When you are doing writing cursively ... what happens is that hand is leaving a very distinct memory of letters in the sensory motor cortex in the brain," Conti said.

When typing, Conti said fingers do not know an L from an F, but when the hand is writing individual letters, the physical action sends a message to the brain's cortex.

"So the next time you see that word, it triggers that sensory motor memory," Conti said.

"The cortex knows what letter is combined with other letters, and puts it all together and bingo, you have a word and the brain says, 'Aha! I know what that is.' It does not seem to happen with keyboarding."