LOS ANGELES (May 21, 2019) -- The Board of Education called today for a plan to ensure that cursive handwriting is taught in elementary school, where keystrokes and technology have overshadowed the need for students to use flowing penmanship.
The resolution sponsored by Board Member Dr. Richard Vladovic cites research showing that learning cursive can stimulate a child’s brain development, enhance their motor skills and may help them learn to read. It also asks for a plan to be developed within 90 days to ensure that cursive writing is taught in elementary school.
“I am pushing for this,” Dr. Vladovic said. “All the research cited over the last decades says that cursive instruction is conducive to word and letter association, and can be helpful to students in their language instruction. We owe it to them to teach the fundamentals that can help build lifelong learners, because the bottom line is that this is good for kids.”
“Even in today’s high-tech world, learning to read and write cursive remains an important skill for our students,” Superintendent Austin Beutner said. “Research tells us that many children learn best when they put pen or pencil to paper. Let’s make sure we help every student reach their full potential.”
Board Vice President Nick Melvoin said, “In an increasingly digital world, we can’t forget that learning to read and write is about more than gaining those skills alone — it's about fostering our young students’ growth in those crucial years of brain development. Putting pen to paper and learning cursive is an important part of that development.”
“Research tells us that students who write in cursive on essays have more speed and efficiency and better focus on the cohesion of ideas,” Board Member George J. McKenna III said. “We look forward to higher literacy rates and scores on the writing portion of the Smarter Balance and SAT with the implementation of this resolution.”