Columbia, South Carolina: If you are over 30, it’s likely that you learned how to write in script in school.
Also, since 2008, South Carolina schools have not forced students to learn handwriting.
State Representative Michael Rivers (D) wants to bring the skill back to public schools. He has introduced a bill that would require kids in public schools from second to fifth grade to learn and write in cursive.
“Now cursive writing is like foreign,” Rivers said in a Zoom interview. “Its critically important for us to make sure young people have that opportunity to legitimize and authenticate their personality through a signature.”
Some people, like middle school teacher Pam Light, wonder if it’s still important to know how to do it.
“I think that skill might have been important.” I’m not sure if it will be important to the next generation, but I think it is important for me. There are a lot of things that need to be taught in school, so I’m not sure if this is the most important one. “But I’m glad my kids know it, and I think all kids should know it,” she said.
Light went on, “I recently sold a house.” He could now e-sign with technology. I didn’t have to write anything down by hand because everything I did was online. It doesn’t seem as important as it used to be if you can sell a house without doing that.
But Rivers thinks that there are still good reasons to teach script in the first few grades, even though he knows that technology has changed how drawing is taught.
“From a legal point of view, I can see how technology and other things could make things more casual and social.” “But adults deal with the law, so there will be papers and the credibility that comes from cursive handwriting, which I think is a good thing,” Rivers said.
It was sent to the Committee on Education and Public Works, and when the session starts up again in January, it will be talked about.