Cursive handwriting is (can be) so elegant. Such a "in your face" revelation of our personalities. Will future generations be unable to decipher the handwriting of the greats of history? What about Lincoln, Wahington? The original Declaration of Independence?

You don't mention which schools, how they justify the decision or when this becomes effective.

My nephew had a difficult time printing his letters because of some motor planning issues. My sister noticed a huge difference in his interest and ability when it came time for him to learn how to write cursive. It really clicked with him and he loved it. Some of our "out of the box" children may actually suffer from this. Yes it may become obsolete but stretching our brains and learning new things will never be obsolete. I think this is a true misake.

Here's the common problem, from an actual support center call:

"We can't read the handwriting in our Registers from years ago, so how do we get the computer to print it out?"

What a travesty! Another case of dumbing down our youth. Soon we'll be using computers to think for them, and the cycle will be complete.

Well, whether we like it or not, computers aren't going away and our middle schools are having to teach "typing" and use valuable time up instead of covering something more substantial. Hopefully the keyboarding/typing will be included in the elementary curriculum now that cursive is being taken away. With a limited time in schools, they do have to focus on skills required when they go out in the "real" world.

How then are people going to sign their names?

All I can say is, not good!

Last time I checked, journalism required backing by some factual content. Where are the sources to support this article, preferably backed by ISBE legislation numbers: districts, schools, grades, minutes per week, accommodations, ect? And exactly who will provide funding for new and additional computer stations? What programs are available for licensing in schools? How do instructors differentiate for children who already know how to type? Our elementary children currently only have access to functioning computers once per week in the library; most other technology in our elementary classrooms borders on prehistoric.

With that said, requiring keyboarding in elementary school is necessary and long-overdue; various Indianapolis schools have already replaced cursive with keyboarding. Mastery of technique--both keyboarding and internet research-- is expected by middle school yet few children have the skills in place. However, reading cursive IS also a necessary skill unless we plan to invent a new college major for "historical cursive scribing and interpretation". If nothing else, at least requiring keyboarding proficiency by middle school will require purchase and replacement of dinosaur elementary school technology which can in turn be used for the horrendous deficiency of elementary Assistive Technology.

Perhaps reducing motor skill requirements by typing will finally enable our elementary school teachers to introduce writing for content, not prettiness!

Sounds like another opportunity to keep "art" in our curriculum! Why not teach children the art of letterforms?

What a sad day. As always, dumb down to the lowest level available.

I asked my son's 1st Grade Teacher - her reply: *"No truth to that…Literacy Committee is currently looking at new resources for cursive handwriting.* This is a teacher in the District 95 School District, Lake Zurich.

Pretty soon typing in the classroom will be obsolete. Just ask Suri when she thinks this will happen!

It won't be keyboarding or typing as we know it . . . it will be like texting . . .with thumbs or 2 fingers ! Watch the kids on the smart phones ! YIKES !

My eleven year old grandson, in a San Francisco area public school, has been taught a kind of linked printing in lieu of cursive handwriting. He is also learning keyboarding on the computer. As we travel, my husband has been sending him postcards -- in printing. When I asked why, he said, "I dont think Nick reads handwriting."

Today's kids are destined to turn out to be a bunch of pukes.. They can't speak correctly... You hear things like, "Well like I didn't like go to school like because like it was like cold today" OR you hear people making statements instead of questions.. Example: "You're not going to the store are you" instead of "Are you going to the store"? Now we don't expect them to know how to write.. That's total BS Shame on us for allowing this to happen.. The total insecurity of people who text "I'm going to walk across the street" and shortly thereafter "I'm on the other side now" Good God, what the hell happened to this country? Oh I get it, they will run the Country with the lessons learned from RAP music..

Montessori Schools teach cursive. It is my 5 and 7 year old children's preferred way of writing even when at home. They read both cursive and print easily.

A response to Busephalus
Thank you for pointing out the fact that I did not use a verb. That was intentional and I wanted to see if anyone would catch it. You obviously did. So now that you qualified to be a watch dog and tutor, go out and stop those kids from saying the word 'like' 6 times in one sentence and make them pull up their pants. As far as the RAP is concerned, it was capitolized because it is so heinous and useless my keyboard was trying to scream.

No more teaching cursive? Maybe we should put churning butter back in, or how to make a candle. Shall we teach the little children other skills that have gone by the wayside? School is for critical thinking, social skills, and future job skill-building. Cursive is antiquated. We read sanskrit, no one writes it anymore. The kids of today will adapt, they will learn what is relevant, and excel. Just as generations have before them. Heaven forbid we don't evolve from the key placement of a typewriter setting to something more adaptive like speech recognition. Stop showing your age(s) and fear of change and embrace it.

Handwriting matters ... But does cursive matter?

Research shows: the fastest and most legible handwriters avoid cursive. They join only some letters, not all of them: making the easiest joins, skipping the rest, and using print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. ((Citation: Steve Graham, Virginia Berninger, and Naomi Weintraub. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HANDWRITING STYLE AND SPEED AND LEGIBILITY. 2001: on-line at http://www.sbac.edu/~werned/DATA/Brain%20research%20class/handwriting%20speed%20style%20legibility%20berninger.pdf — and there are actually handwriting programs that teach this way.)
Reading cursive still matters -- this takes just 30 to 60 minutes to learn, and can be taught to a five- or six-year-old if the child knows how to read. The value of reading cursive is therefore no justification for writing it.
Remember, too: whatever your elementary school teacher may have been told by her elementary school teacher, cursive signatures have no special legal validity over signatures written in any other way. (Don't take my word for this: talk to any attorney.)

Yours for better letters,

Kate Gladstone — CEO, Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works
Director, the World Handwriting Contest
Co-Designer, BETTER LETTERS handwriting trainer app for iPhone/iPad

How will they be able to read a lot of our historical documents? Is teaching cursive really THAT big of a burden on their school day?