When younger students return to Georgia public schools this fall, they will learn an old-school skill: handwriting.
New changes to the state standards for English Language Arts will require the teaching of cursive writing in elementary school.
The state Board of Education approved the standards overhaul two years ago but gave teachers until this fall to prepare.
Georgia is joining other states, from Alabama to Texas, that are resurrecting a skill that had seemingly gone the way of the dodo after the proliferation of laptops and touchscreen devices.
Even California, the cradle of computer keyboards, passed a law requiring cursive in schools in 2023. In third grade, students will have to learn how to read phrases and sentences in cursive, and they will practice forming letters and word connectors.
By fifth grade, they will be called on to write whole texts in cursive, “legibly and efficiently,” with appropriate spacing throughout.
