When my granddaughters, Sophie and Francesca, were seven and five years old, my daughter Anne and I spent many afternoons with the girls conducting “Play School.” We spent hours on cursive writing—the alphabet, the girls’ names, and the old-fashioned exercises of lines of large linked circles and slanted vertical lines. They loved it and the lessons stayed with them right through their school years.
Today, the girls—now 17 and 19—have beautiful, readable handwriting. But according to the letter here, In Defense of Cursive!, written by Maine House of Representatives Heidi Sampson, perhaps those afternoon lessons had other positive effects. Representative Sampson is not just writing letters to editors. She is introducing legislation to restore cursive writing to Maine’s elementary schools.
We salute the efforts in Maine to bring cursive writing back to schools, and we hope that every state will follow suit!
~ Betty Edwards