Maine is actually thinking about making kids learn cursive again!
Maine awmakers are looking at a bill that would make public schools teach cursive to kids in grades 3-5. It’s kind of wild when you think about how many kids these days can barely read grandma’s birthday cards.
Representative Sheila Lyman, is pushing for it after teaching cursive for like 36 years. She’s basically wondering why they stopped teaching it in the first place.
She’s asking, “If they’re not doing it, why did they decide not to?” Fair question!
But not everyone’s on board with this throwback idea. At this public hearing they just had, some education expert named Deb Deb
McIntyre from the Maine Curriculum Leaders Association arguing that cursive has become outdated. McIntyre urged lawmakers to instead “focus on policies that offer students flexibility to learn skills that will truly serve them in an increasingly digital and connected world.”
If enacted, the legislation would require schools to begin cursive instruction in third grade and continue through fifth grade, starting next academic year. The proposal would shift Maine from its current approach, letting individual districts decide, to join the majority of U.S. states that maintain cursive in their official curricula, according to the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation. Maine currently stands with just five other states that leave cursive instruction as a local decision rather than a state mandate.