The next generation of Georgia youths may be able to decipher those birthday cards from grandma without any help from a grown-up.
That’s because Georgia’s new English language arts standards, which take effect in July, will include an emphasis on handwriting, and particularly cursive. The standards will address handwriting starting in kindergarten and move to cursive in third through fifth grade. The previous standards did not have an explicit place for handwriting.
“We want to ensure that our students, when they graduate from the state of Georgia, have all the skills they need,” said April Aldridge, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning at the Georgia Department of Education. “In the world we live in, that means we have to have a varied degree of skills, and we need to know when to use the skills in which situations.”
“The skill of handwriting, I wouldn’t say that it’s an antiquated skill because I think most of us use handwriting at some point in our lives every single day, whether it’s in formal or informal situations, so I think it’s just one of the tools that students need to be proficient in,” she added.
While some parents may embrace it, other parents question whether incorporating cursive lessons into English class is the best use of instruction time.