For now, the school has decided that handwriting instruction - printing and cursive - remains an important component of preparing a child for the outside world. Their longhand must be clear to read even if they don't use it as much as students did in the past.
Other schools are reexamining handwriting instruction as well, prompted by the popularity of texting, e-mail, and touchscreen computers even as a flush of research says putting pen to paper is good for the brain. Studies at the University of Washington have found that handwriting stimulates cognitive regions in the brain and that second, fourth, and sixth graders expressed themselves more quickly in handwriting and had more ideas than children who used a keyboard.
The Pottstown Area School School District recently mandated that handwriting be taught through third grade. Before the change, instruction had been left up to the teacher, said Laurie Kolka, the district's supervisor of curriculum and instruction.
"There was a debate in our district," Kolka said. "Some people saw cursive as a dead art and that we shouldn't use our instructional time teaching it. Others felt that they do need keyboarding and also need cursive."
Most schools teach handwriting through only the third grade, said Steve Graham, professor of special education and literacy at Vanderbilt University. Schools are in a "hybrid period": Students are doing more writing than ever before because of digital communications, yet handwriting has not disappeared. Paper and pencil are still an economical and useful tool for teachers.
At Plymouth Meeting Friends, Leann Stover Nyce, who teaches fifth grade, said technology instruction must be an important part of preparing students to face a changing world.
"There needs to be a balance so that we give them the tools to make choices," she said.
