The Ohio House overwhelmingly passed a bill to adopt a model curriculum for schools to use to teach cursive handwriting to elementary school kids.
While the measure only got four “nay” votes, state Rep. Dan Ramos (D-Lorain) argued against the ide, saying he flunked handwriting in second grade, that his 20-something staff never uses cursive. Ramos said he would rather see class time used for computer coding or for a foreign language – something for the future rather than from the past.
But sponsoring state Rep. Marilyn Slaby (R-Copley) said there’s an important element Ramos and others learned.
“Yours may not be real readable, but you can still read somebody else’s cursive writing,” Slaby said.
Slaby added that cursive is also good for small motor skills. HB 58 doesn’t require schools to teach cursive, so it’s not a mandate.
