It is, perhaps, a sign of the times that many Colorado schools are spending less and less time teaching students cursive writing, and focusing instead on teaching keyboarding, reports the Denver Post. While some schools have stopped teaching cursive altogether, those that still do devote less class time to making sure the kids know how to read and write it. Most of the time, how much effort is devoted to teaching cursive has been left up to the teacher, with some virtually abandoning the practice while an ever-increasing minority enthusiastically embrace it.

Teachers and educators cite many reasons for the shift. Some say that typing is faster and more efficient. According to Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham, studies have shown that overall, word processors produce better quality writing. Others point out that with the prevalence of computers, students are unlikely to make much use of their cursive skills once they leave school:

[T]eacher Sue Workman subscribed to the idea that cursive’s efficiency provided a key skill for note-taking in high school and college. Then her student teacher explained how she navigated college entirely without handwritten notes…”If they’re not using it when they’re older, why are we demanding it now?”

Denver Public Schools chief academic officer Susana Cordova also attributes the change to the increase in state-wide testing in recent years. She sees schools reluctant to spend class time on something not emphasised in state standards:

Once kids have learned to print in first grade, she says, the standards move away from letter formation and focus on aspects of writing such as organization, message and grammar.

Not everyone, however, is quite ready to wave goodbye to cursive. Many Colorado private schools, such as those run by the Archdiocese of Denver, not only teach cursive to second- and third-graders, they also encourage students to practice and develop the skill in the later grades. Likewise, James Irwin Charter Elementary School in Colorado Springs enthusiastically embraces the teaching of cursive, covering their school hallways with student writing examples and devoting twenty minutes of daily instruction not only to writing itself, but also to “checking [student] posture, the angle of their paper on the desk and the proper pencil grip.”

At Denver Montclair International School, where study of cursive begins in kindergarten, executive director Adam Sexton says that it helps students in learning French and Spanish:

“By having single words connected and then having space in between, the (cursive) philosophy is helping them distinguish individual words…I don’t know why schools are discontinuing it.”

The popularity of cursive might be on the decline, but Graham says that more than 80% teachers still devote at least some instruction time to it in first, second and third grade, though hardly any time at all after that.