A cursive decline

The yellowed parchment lies between armed guards in Washington's National Archives, in a palatial room with marble columns, oil paintings and polished floors -- a room dubbed "the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom."

"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union . . ." it begins.

For centuries, Americans have marveled at the words and ideas imbued in the Constitution, as well as the sure and steady hand that recorded those words in extravagant loops and curves.

All of which raises the question: Would we make such a fuss over the document if the founders had typed it in Microsoft Word? Today, written communication is increasingly being replaced by computer messages.

And, while adding computer proficiency requirements, school districts across the nation are de-emphasizing cursive writing in elementary school training. In higher grades, teachers are seeing less work done in cursive and more in block lettering or on computer printouts. Furthermore, some teachers say that with the pressure to help students pass high-stakes achievement tests, they don't have time or classroom resources to ensure that students master all aspects of handwriting.

Traditional penmanship, like calligraphy before it, is fast becoming a lost art.

"Many years ago, we placed much more emphasis on handwriting and even gave grades. We devoted systematic lessons to it," said Harriet Martin, a third-grade teacher at Orchard Elementary School in Jackson. "It was almost like an art, but in education we're stressing it as an art. We have a more common sense approach."

Now, the focus is on writing legibly in whatever way fits each students' needs, said Martin. In her school, teachers don't go around to each student making sure they're holding the pencil at the correct angle and slanting their letters perfectly.

"We have so much other curriculum to teach. We focus on math and communication arts and the science areas now," said Martin. "We have several styles of handwriting in my class."

At Franklin Elementary in Cape Girardeau, principal Rhonda Dunham said her school has a handwriting curriculum, though students spend an increasing amount of time working on computers.

Dunham estimates that 80 percent of all work, especially among kindergartners, first- and second-graders, is still handwritten. Third- and fourth-graders spend more time on computers.

And eventually, Dunham believes that even parts of the annual state achievement tests -- the Missouri Assessment Program -- will be done on computers.

It's a trend that is happening in many states.

Irma Webber, a fifth-grade teacher at Kiker Elementary School in Southwest Austin, Texas, said only two of her 29 students write in cursive, and few have traditional penmanship skills.

"I have kids who make letters in very creative ways," she said.

The Texas guidelines on cursive writing are ambiguous. When the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum requirements were adopted in 1998, the state changed the requirement that students learn to write legible cursive letters in addition to learning manuscript, or printing. Instead, according to an October 2004 clarification, the state mandates only that in third grade "students master manuscript writing and may begin to use cursive writing."

In grades 4 through 8, however, the same clarification notes, "it is assumed that students have learned cursive handwriting by the time they enter grade 4."

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said, "We'd like them to still use cursive, but the district determines how the handwriting [instruction] will be used." No one can say how many students are or aren't learning cursive. Still, for many, saving cursive writing is more than a matter of nostalgia.

"I would prefer them to learn both" manuscript and cursive, said Travis Heights Elementary PTA President Christina Roman, whose son is learning cursive writing in the second grade.

"I do think it's a valuable lesson, and it teaches more than just how to write in cursive. It teaches pen control, coordination -- stuff like that."

~ Staff writer Callie Clark Miller contributed to this report, which was originally published in the Austin American Statesman.