PHOENIX — Good news for students: You won’t have to learn cursive to make it to the sixth grade.
Gov. Doug Ducey this week vetoed legislation that would have mandated schools include cursive reading and writing in their curricula. That same measure would have required students to show by the end of fifth grade they are “able to create readable documents through legible cursive handwriting.”
In his veto message, the governor said he strongly believes that cursive should be taught. But the governor said that decision should be left to the state Board of Education, which he said is already revising academic standards.
Some foes of SB 1197 said there was little reason to teach cursive in a time where much of the written word is produced by people pecking away at keyboards linked to computers. But Ducey, while vetoing the measure, said he does not share that belief.
“I do not agree with others who proclaim that handwriting is a ‘lost art’ or a ‘relic of the past,’” the governor wrote in his message — a message that was produced on a computer.
“Research shows a link between stronger handwriting skills and pedagogical benefits, including increased cognitive and learning development, brain activation, letter recognition and greater reading coherence,” Ducey said. “And for many, handwriting also allows a process of reflection that can lead to better understanding and memory encoding.”
