Cursive: Slanted Writing When I first started learning cursive writing in Mrs. Schuler's second grade class, I wasn't too thrilled about having to sit silently in my office for what seemed like an hour learning to turn my page sideways and trying to remember how many bumps an "m" and an "n" have. It was incredibly tedious to sit there watching a video and follow the steps while Ms. Schuler monitored my lesson's progress, never hesitating to correct us if we got it wrong. As a naive second grader, it never occurred to me that what my class and I were learning was not taught in other second grade classes. I didn't realize that the other kids didn't have trouble making their capital g's so close to the sample in their booklet. At the time, I had absolutely no idea that I would be grateful for knowing how to write in cursive. Throughout elementary school, my teachers required us to write in cursive everything we handed in. From time to time I would hear a few students complaining, and as we got closer to being high school students, I would happily listen to them talk about how teachers didn't require the use of writing cursive. Although I didn't realize it when I was learning cursive, I have come to appreciate the loopy way of writing and am very lucky to know how to read and write this way. My classmates and I have the choice of writing in print or cursive, but some kids never have that option. The Common Core State Standard is “an educational initiative that aims to align state curricula with national standards” (“National survey finds teaching cursive writing in danger.”). It is a recent initiative and since then it has been well received in 45 states of the United States...... middle of paper...... old newspaper or historical documents like the Declaration of Independence , when written in English, the language they speak. This is why cursive writing should always be taught in schools, just like keyboarding. Technology is growing exponentially and it's important for children to be computer literate, but that doesn't mean they should ignore the written word. Students should have the choice of writing in cursive or print, but they need to be exposed to it first. They may have trouble remembering how many bumps an "m" and an "n" have or think that tilting the page is superfluous, but if cursive writing is omitted, they won't have the opportunity to do so. experience cursive writing and love it or hate it. We can say things about cursive writing, but we cannot say that there are any disadvantages to learning it. Why then get rid of something that wasn't harmful to begin with??