Read between the lines, Statehouse: cursive is old school

Attention, everyone:  I have tragic news.  The Indiana Department of Education will no longer require cursive writing to be taught in all Indiana schools, starting next fall.  

Wait, what?  You don't care about kids not learning to write in cursive?  Hey, me neither.  Other than signing my name, I can't even remember the last time I needed to write in cursive.  My textbooks aren't written in cursive.  Assignments handed out by professors aren't written in cursive.  I'm willing to believe this trend of not seeing things in cursive extends to the workplace too.

Apparently, however, a couple of our Indiana Senators do not agree.  Terre Haute's own Senator Tim Skinner (D), along with Senator Jean Leising (R) are planning to introduce legislation in this spring's session to make the teaching of cursive writing mandatory in all Indiana schools, possibly even including schools which receive vouchers. Their arguments in favor of teaching cursive writing are laughable.  

My favorite is that without knowing how to read and write cursive, students will be unable to read the original version of the Constitution.  I'm sorry, have they read the original version of the Constitution?  I've seen it, in all its cursive glory, but I've never read it because it's quite difficult. 

Printed versions of the Constitution are not somehow less important or valid simply because they are printed.  The meaning is not lost.

Another argument is that cursive writing has been one of the few constants in the American education system.  The argument that something should be done simply because it has always been done, regardless of its usefulness, will never be any less ridiculous.  Life changes, technology advances and old practices fall by the wayside.  This is what we call progress.  Not to mention that schools are free to make local decisions on the subject and teach it or not teach it as they see fit. Finally, Senator Skinner actually goes so far as to say that teaching cursive is just as important as math or science.  Nevermind that the United States falls behind other developed countries in terms of math and science, and that these fields are important not only for the education of our children, but for the development of our economy by having more workers trained in fields associated with high levels of math and science knowledge.  Could these two senators be any more out of touch?

Contrast this with another technology related initiative to be proposed in the next session.  The Indiana General Assembly is looking at moving to iPads to cut down on the amount of paper wasted in the Statehouse.  A recent study found that a single bill in the General Assembly generates as much as 11,400 pages of paper.  Much of it gets recycled, but wouldn't it be great if it was never used in the first place?  Enter the iPad.  Instead of printing all those bills and amendments, the proposal to go paperless and have all that information on an iPad is being considered for the General Assembly.  A pilot program has been approved for the upcoming session, and legislators will test out iPads instead of having their copies of bills printed.  Not only is it expected to save paper, but money too—printing so much paper actually costs more money for the state than purchasing iPads.

So let's compare these two initiatives.  One forces us to stay in the past instead of embracing technology and moving forward while the other embraces technology to save money and help the environment at the same time.  One can only hope that other legislators at the Statehouse are not also stuck in the past.