Monday’s Education Policy Committee hearing opened with an anecdote about a Senate intern who could not identify John Hancock’s well-known signature on the Declaration of Independence.
The story came just before Sen. Ann Rest (DFL-New Hope) introduced S.F. 173, which would require the Minnesota Department of Education to develop a model elementary English language arts curriculum that enables students to read and write in cursive by the end of fifth grade. An amendment to the bill incorporates cursive into the next revision of Minnesota’s K-12 language arts standards, scheduled for 2030. Sen. Rest introduced similar legislation during the 2019 legislative session.
Currently, cursive instruction is optional for school districts. Until 2010, however, it was included in the state’s required language arts standards, as first reported by the Minnesota Reformer. The removal followed Minnesota’s adoption of Common Core-aligned English language arts standards, which emphasized keyboard proficiency and de-emphasized traditional handwriting instruction.
Supporters of S.F. 173 argued that cursive instruction is not merely about nostalgia, stating that research has linked the handwriting to improved memory retention, attention to detail, and hand-eye coordination. There are also benefits for students with ADHD or dyslexia. Beyond cognitive development, comments in support of the bill focused on how cursive provides direct access to primary historical documents — such as being able to read the Declaration of Independence.
Half of U.S. states (25) now require cursive instruction in some form, whether through statute or state standards (as was previously the case in Minnesota).
Restoring cursive instruction to our state standards fixes the past removal of this foundational skill. But policymakers should drop the bill’s mandate for a state model curriculum since local school boards already select curricula for all other academic standards.
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the education omnibus bill.
States that require schools to teach cursive writing
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During my time as a public school teacher, I taught cursive handwriting to my fifth-grade students. It was extremely beneficial for my students with dyslexia, it improved spelling, and it encouraged much neater assignments! Students began learning cursive in second grade after mastering basic manuscript writing. The cursive instruction was integrated into my school’s language arts curriculum.
