MANOR, Texas (WTHR) - Students in Texas will soon have a new, old homework assignment in their hands.
Cursive writing will make a comeback in Texas classrooms next year as the state's Board of Education makes changes to its curriculum. The changes are due to updates to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for language arts, KXAN reported last week.
Students will start learning to write cursive in second grade and must know how to do so legibly by their fifth grade year.
While many districts stopped teaching writing to most students, some teachers say the flow of cursive writing helps students with dyslexia.
"Say they wanted to write the word 'magenta,' and they weren't able to get it," Tori Linzenmeyer said. "They might just write 'red.' And cursive helps them have a flow of ideas; it's more streamlined, with less stopping in between.'"
Cursive was dropped from Indiana's curriculum in 2011, though school districts still have the right to teach cursive, but are not obligated to do so. State Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) introduced legislation earlier this year to mandate cursive writing in Indiana.
Linzenmeyer told KXAN there needs to be more balance between technology and physical writing, and not just for students with dyslexia.
"Strong writers," she said, "become strong readers."
