The effortlessly flowing form of penmanship known as cursive may flow effortlessly flat onto the Indiana Senate floor next week, never to be required in an Indiana schoolroom again.
Or, maybe the third time will be a charm for Sen. Jean Leising's cursive writing Senate Bill 113, and it will be read by a House Committee.
But it isn't looking likely.
Leising, R-Oldenburg, who represents part of Henry County, has tried each year since 2011 to re-introduce cursive to the Common Core curriculum, when keyboarding made an appearance in new requirements and cursive was suddenly nowhere to be found. The Indiana Senate passed Leising's bill January 23, but members of the House of Representatives don't seem interested.
House Education Committee Chairman Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, repeated his third refusal in as many years to hear Leising's bill, claiming in no uncertain terms that he believed there were more important issues for the house to consider. But Leising is adamant that cursive writing is not "an old-fashioned issue, but an issue of cognitive development," she told The Courier-Times Wednesday.
In fact, Leising said she wrote a memo to every member of the House urging them to hear the bill next week. She attached to her memo an article from the Washington Post citing a College Board study that showed higher standardized testing scores for children who knew how to write cursive.
Leising said she fears Henry County teachers may feel too overwhelmed preparing for standardized testing to teach cursive, even though she believes not learning cursive writing puts schoolchildren at a disadvantage.
"I have all the electronic devices," Leising said. "But I still have a yellow sticky notepad so I can write a note to an aide when I am supposed to be talking to three people." Leising said she has seen high school-age legislative pages who are unable to write cursive thank-you notes to their senators.
In New Castle, Leising's fears may be reality.
"I don't speak for everyone in the district, but I like to teach it in May." Since teaching cursive is no longer on the academic standards list, teachers have flexibility with the subject, Wilbur Wright third grade teacher Kristin Owens said Wednesday. All available teaching time must be directed more to what is going to be tested when ISTEP rolls around that there just isn't time in the classroom to think about teaching anything that isn't required.
"I can't spend time on it prior to ISTEP," Owens said. Instead, after ISTEP in May, when the classroom atmosphere is much more relaxed, she spends time on the subject.
"They at least need to know how to read it," Owens said.
If the bill does not make it to a senate committee for hearing, it will die.
© Copyright 2024, The Courier-Times, New Castle, IN.