Ohio Department of Education spokesman Patrick Gallaway said the decision of whether to continue teaching cursive writing to elementary school children falls to the individual school districts.
“It’s up to them, but it is not required now,” he said, acknowledging the issue has generated a bit of controversy because many adults still view handwriting as an important skill that should be taught.
Betsy Carter, senior director of learning for Middletown City Schools, said the new Core Curriculum is not required to be implemented until 2013-2014.
“Right now, we’re still teaching the Ohio standards as they are written, which means cursive (writing) is in those standards. We will continue to teach the Ohio standards as we are required to do up until that time and then as we work through that core curriculum with our teachers and revamp our curriculum we’ll make that decision (on whether to continue teaching it),” she said.
Monroe Local Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said the district will continue teaching cursive writing ( what it refers to as penmanship) to students beginning in the third grade.
She said that it is an important skill set kids need to be taught.
“I think they need to know how to do cursive writing just for the speed of things. It’s great to have a computer, it’s great to have technology, but you still at times will need to have access to paper and pencil. The fastest way for people is cursive,” Lolli said.
Today, she said most forms and applications ask people to print.
“One of the reasons you want to move cursive to third or fourth grade, if you haven’t already, is because you want to develop that printing skill and keep kids printing longer. Then also require some assignments that are printed assignments and some requirements that are cursive assignments because of the speed,” Lolli said.
“Whenever kids go onto work or if they go into colleges or businesses, they’re going to need to be able to do both still because technology is not full proof.”
Denise Griffin, Edgewood City Schools director of curriculum, technology and instruction, said the district also plans to continue the practice of teaching cursive writing.
“We don’t drill and kill like we use to where they had to make all the letters perfect. We do recognize most of what they read today is in print, but they still have to read letters from grand moms and moms. We still think it’s a faster way of handwriting,” she said.
“We still do introduce it (cursive writing) and we still practice it. We’re practicing it and correcting it in third, fourth and fifth grade. After that, each kid kind of picks up their own style.”
Barbara Fuerbacher, associate superintendent of Hamilton City Schools, said the district has not determined if it will continue to offer cursive writing, which is also introduced in the third grade.
“Since the Common Core Standards no longer require it does not necessarily mean that we will discontinue formal instruction. In fact, I will be very surprised if we do,” she said.
“However, we assemble curriculum committees annually to review current curriculum maps and make necessary adjustments, so we will discuss the pros and cons of continuing the practice and make a recommendation to the Board of Education.”
Joni Copas, a district spokeswoman, said she is not sure when the board will reach a decision on the matter.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.
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