Kids can text on tiny keyboards, convey their thoughts in 140 characters or less and use numbers for prepositions, but some states fear they soon may not be able to sign their own names.
In this digital age of Internet acronyms, like “LOL,” and emoticons, Tennessee is the latest state pressing for legislation that mandates students learn cursive writing in school.
Lawmakers in the state are pushing for passage of House Bill 1697, which would require all public school students to learn how to read and write in cursive, preferably by the third grade.
The bill, authored by state Republican Rep. Sheila Butt, is meant to prevent a decline in students’ ability to read handwritten notes and sign their own names as well as interpret historical documents in their original form, like the Declaration of Independence.
“Cursive writing is timeless because it connects us to our past,” Butt told FoxNews.com.
“Across the state, we have students who are able to read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on their own,” she said, “And then we have students who can only learn about it though a third party. “These are foundational documents that are critical to our history.”
Butt said her motivation to craft the bill came after parents complained to her that their children were unable to read handwritten assignments. Upon further investigation, Butt’s findings were startling, she said.
“I found out that in my county there were high school juniors and seniors who could not read a cursive writing assignment a teacher had written on the board,” she told FoxNews.com. “And there were juniors and seniors who did not have a cursive signature to write on a legal document.”
Tennessee is one of at least six states with lawmakers urging that cursive by mandatory. Five other states — North Carolina, California, Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia — already have laws in place to make sure students learn to read and write in script.