Pennsylvania House of Representatives just rejected progressive educational trends by overwhelmingly voting to bring back cursive writing, a skill that liberal educators have been quietly erasing from curriculum for years.
Key Takeaways
- Pennsylvania House passed a bill mandating cursive education in all schools with a near-unanimous 195-8 vote.
- Research shows cursive writing improves brain development, executive function, and fine motor skills – benefits ignored by Common Core standards.
- The push to restore cursive comes as 24 states have already enacted similar laws, rejecting the digital-only focus of progressive education models.
- Students without cursive skills cannot read founding documents like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in their original form.
- The bill now moves to the Senate, potentially joining Pennsylvania with states reclaiming traditional educational values.
Reclaiming Traditional Skills in Pennsylvania Schools
In a powerful rebuke to progressive education trends that have dominated American classrooms for over a decade, Pennsylvania lawmakers have taken decisive action to restore cursive writing to the state’s curriculum. House Bill 17, introduced by Republican State Representative Dane Watro, passed with overwhelming support in a 195-8 vote, signaling strong bipartisan recognition that abandoning cursive was a serious educational misstep. The legislation mandates that all public and private elementary schools in Pennsylvania teach students this increasingly rare skill that was once standard in American education before being systematically eliminated by Common Core standards implemented in 2010.
“There are compelling cognitive, developmental, and practical reasons for ensuring students have at least a basic grasp of cursive writing,” said Republican State Rep. Dane Watro.
The Science Behind Cursive’s Cognitive Benefits
While progressives have dismissed cursive as outdated and unnecessary in the digital age, scientific evidence tells a different story. Research consistently shows that learning cursive activates unique neural pathways that improve executive function, fine motor skills, and working memory. These benefits extend beyond simple penmanship – students who master cursive demonstrate improved language fluency, creativity, and even better foreign language acquisition. The physical act of connecting letters reinforces neural connections and builds hand-eye coordination in developing brains in ways that typing on a keyboard simply cannot replicate.
“Cursive was a coming-of-age part of literacy in the 1980s. We learned cursive, and then we could write like adults wrote,” noted Jaime Cantrell.
The progressive push to eliminate cursive from schools has created a generation increasingly disconnected from critical thinking skills. Pennsylvania’s bill addresses this educational malpractice by amending a 1949 law to explicitly include teaching print, joined italics, and cursive handwriting. The focus on cursive comes at a time when many young adults struggle with basic tasks like providing consistent signatures for voter verification – a point specifically raised by Rep. Watro when advocating for the bill’s passage.
Connecting Children to American Heritage
Perhaps most concerning about the elimination of cursive is how it disconnects younger generations from America’s founding documents and historical records. Students who can’t read cursive are effectively barred from directly engaging with the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and countless historical documents in their original form. Instead, they become dependent on others’ interpretations rather than reading the primary sources themselves – a dangerous proposition when history is increasingly being rewritten through progressive lenses in schools.
Pennsylvania’s effort follows at least 24 other states that have already enacted laws to restore cursive writing in education. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration, where it appears to have significant momentum. If passed, Pennsylvania will join the growing movement rejecting the ill-conceived educational experiments that have prioritized digital-only instruction at the expense of proven cognitive development tools. By restoring cursive, Pennsylvania lawmakers are ensuring students receive a complete education that honors tradition while providing demonstrable benefits for brain development.
