After years of pushing for a cursive mandate, this Indiana senator may finally get it done

Updated Feb. 6: Senate Bill 287, which includes an amendment from Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, to mandate cursive writing in Indiana public schools, passed the Senate Tuesday with a 46-3 vote.

Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, one of the three who voted against the bill, said the internet safety provisions of the bill should be required but cursive should be an option for school districts to establish.

"I don't think it needs to be in statute that we need to teach that," Zay said.

The bill, now on its way to the House, would encourage school districts to teach internet safety and instructs Indiana's Department of Education to develop or approve age-appropriated internet safety curriculum by July 2025. The bill also contains the amendment requiring schools to teach cursive.

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Original story: Indiana Senator Jean Leising started a fight to put cursive writing back in schools nearly 13 years ago and despite repeated disappointment she's refused to give up.

Every year for more than a decade, Leising, R-Oldenburg, said she’s introduced a bill seeking a mandate for cursive instruction. And every year it has failed. Many years the bill has not even made out it of committee.

This year could be different. Leising, who has been a lawmaker off and on since 1988, filed Senate Bill 103, which would require schools to teach cursive and print handwriting in addition to spelling instruction. That bill died last week.

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On Wednesday Leising successfully added an amendment to a bill on internet safety in schools that would mandate cursive for elementary schools. That bill passed the Senate's education committee and now heads to the Senate floor.

During the 2023 legislative session, Leising's original bill was amended to require schools to report whether or not they teach cursive. Those survey results were published last December in a report by Indiana’s Department of Education although more than 380 school districts did not respond.

Of those who did answer, the report found that most private schools offered cursive whereas public schools were split on whether they offered that instruction.

Leising said there are clear gaps for private versus public schools when it comes to cursive instruction and that’s a problem.

“We are allowing a huge disparity to occur between public and private school students in the area of cursive writing, which is ultimately connected to literacy,” Leising said.

Indiana is in the middle of a literacy crisis. Lawmakers are currently weighing various ways to address that concern, particularly for third grade students. Leising said teaching cursive could help with literacy efforts.

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The style of penmanship left Indiana schools when technology began to thrive in instruction, around the 2010s, Leising said. She supports the idea backed by research, that cursive writing can help students’ brain development. Some studies on the topic support the role cursive can play in students' education.

IndyStar's Rachel Fradette spoke to Leising, who joined the state legislature in 1988 for eight years and then was reelected in 2008, to talk about her continued support and vision for cursive writing. Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What are your memories of cursive writing in school?

I think my memories are the same as what I hear from parents whose kids are still being taught. They feel like they're big people. They feel like they're an adult when they can write cursive. They feel like they're growing up. It's a sense of achievement, that kids experience and many kids are not (experiencing that). I think that's the same thing I thought. They say that you think that you're a big cheese, because you can write like your mom or dad. Maybe that's the case.

Indiana’s Department of Education released its cursive writing report in December. Did any part of the report surprise you?

It didn't surprise me at all. Besides my 15 public (school) corporations (in my district), I have eight private schools and one charter. I know they're all still teaching it. So I assumed that the results were going to come out like they did. What maybe surprised me the most about the report was that the Secretary of Education didn't make every school respond. She said, We followed up, but I said Yes, but you have several schools that have still not responded and this was like a month ago.

I think that's disappointing, because then I would say, What other things are they not responding to? That some people here would say are more important than cursive writing? I mean, if the Department of Education reaches out to the school, and you're the head of the school, and you don't respond, somebody ought to be pushing it.

What were your thoughts when your bill last year was amended to only require a study of this instruction in Indiana schools?

I was actually encouraged because we were actually going to find out how much disparity there was between public and private. I was actually enthused about the fact that we were finally going to try to get to the bottom of it. The disappointing point for me is that it hasn't seemed to move the naysayers yet.

Throughout the legislative session this year, several times cursive was brought up as the butt of a joke a few different times in education committees. Do you think it will ever be taken seriously, like in California where it became a requirement?

No, for some people here no, because they've never delved into it. They have no idea about cognitive brain development. They have no idea that kids that have dyslexia sometimes are encouraged to learn cursive because they learn how to connect letters to make words. These are people that are laughing and making fun, that have no idea of the real evidence behind it. But, you know, I can only do what I can do. I'm trying. I thought maybe the fact that 91% of the private schools and 52% of the publics are teaching it. I thought that disparity might encourage some of those people that were laughing, to perhaps say, 'Oh, geez, we are creating a disparity.'

If this were to pass, what do you foresee as some of the challenges? Would it require more resources for teachers?

I don't think so. Most of them could go to the Dollar Tree and buy a book that shows them how to write cursive, and they can go home and practice as though they were six or seven. It's not that difficult. They can teach themselves.

You don't think it would be that big of an investment for them?

Not at all. I'm sure that they're doing some other things that they could figure out a time slot where they could spend a little bit of time.

Will this be the year?

Well, I know that I have several members in the House that have told me please send us the cursive bill. Please send it to me, so I can put the House members name on it? Well, first, I have to get it out of the Senate. Maybe you guys should start one in the House. I'm open to anybody trying. It's not like I own this exclusively, right. So anybody that can get it through it should try. That's the way I feel about it.

Rachel Fradette is a suburban education reporter at IndyStar. Contact her at rfradette@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter at @Rachel_Fradette.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Sen. Jean Leising wants cursive writing back in school. Here's why.