Amid a statewide push that now requires all public and private schools to teach cursive, Garnet Valley Elementary School in Concord Township is bringing the looping letters back to its classrooms, writes Madeleine Wright for CBS News Philadelphia.
According to Garnet Valley Elementary School PrincipalSusan Papson, the district phased out cursive writing in 2010, and the biggest challenge in bringing it back has been fitting it into an already packed curriculum. For now, cursive is taught only in some classrooms, with a full rollout planned for this fall for all fourth graders.
Meanwhile, students, such as eleven-year-old Ryan Larkin, are finding cursive both interesting and challenging.
“I think the letter Z is the hardest letter to write because it’s so many curving lines,” said Ryan.
So far, parent feedback has been entirely positive, teachers said.
“The parents are excited about it, absolutely, because the parents, too, have learned how to do cursive when they were in school,” said teacher Mary Magrann.
According to advocates, cursive writing helps improve memory and cognitive thinking skills.
Read more about Garnet Valley Elementary School at CBS News Philadelphia.
