Cursive is making a comeback. But does it deserve one?

Phys · 🇺🇸 public United States · Aug 20, 2026 · 1048 words · By Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo

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What to know about Cursive is making a comeback. But does it deserve one?

The article examines the history of cursive instruction in American schools, its decline due to technology and curriculum changes, and its recent resurgence through state mandates. It presents arguments for the cognitive and practical benefits of cursive alongside concerns regarding teacher proficiency and the strength of the supporting scientific evidence.

Propaganda risk 10%

Claims checked 15

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center80%

Right20%

5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Chief Editor Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild.

Why it matters

Until the early 20th century, children in the U.S.

Common ground

were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing typically taught to young children today.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Cursive is making a comeback. But does it deserve one??
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that North Carolina passed the first cursive law in 2013. It required students to read and write in cursive by the end of fifth grade?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cursive-comeback.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 15 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 5

check_circle Corroborated 3

info Single Source 3

verified Verified By Reference 2

help Insufficient Evidence 1

verified Verified 1

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Claim 1: “North Carolina passed the first cursive law in 2013. It required students to read and write in cursive by the end of fifth grade.”

CORROBORATED

Both Fortune and a news report regarding the NC Senate confirm that North Carolina passed a cursive law in 2013 requiring students to read and write in cursive by the end of fifth grade.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — 5.2 Cursive writing in North America. 5.2.1 Development in the 18th and 19th centuries.In Hebrew cursive and Roman cursive, the letters are not connected. In Maharashtra, there was a cursive alphabet,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Framed as a back-to-basics issue, North Carolina passed the first cursive law in 2013. It required students to read and write in cursive by the end of fifth grade. The law also required children to me…
https://fortune.com/2026/08/25/cursive-state-mandates-ai-che…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The General Assembly appears ready to pass a law requiring North Carolina public schools to teach old-school lessons of cursive writing and multiplication tables.
https://www.wxii12.com/article/nc-senate-wants-cursive-times…

info

Claim 2: “By the 1980s, the instructional time dedicated to cursive instruction in some schools had been reduced from 45 minutes a day to 30–60 minutes per week.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The specific reduction from 45 minutes a day to 30-60 minutes per week by the 1980s is mentioned in a Fortune article, but no other independent source in the provided evidence corroborates these specific numbers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol), also known as .45 Auto, .45 Automatic, or 11.43×23mm is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototy…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_ACP

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 45 may refer to: 45 (number), the natural number following 44 and preceding 46 one of the years 45 BC, AD 45, 1945, 2045
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 45 RPM or 45 rpm may refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_RPM

+ 3 more evidence sources

help

Claim 3: “By 2015, 14 other states had some kind of cursive instruction requirement on the books.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results to confirm the number of other states (14) that had cursive requirements by 2015.

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Claim 4: “Students during these years generally learned print in kindergarten, first and second grades. Cursive was typically introduced in third grade or later”

CORROBORATED

Two independent web sources confirm that cursive was typically introduced in third grade or later and that children first learned print.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Cursive was typically introduced in third grade or later, in part because some child development researchers at the time believed that writing in print was easier for young children to learn and align…
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-cursive-comeback.html

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Most children first learn to print, and only at age seven or eight are they introduced to cursive script. Considering how infrequently students actually write, the neurological en-coding of the writin…
http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/cursive_first.pdf

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Cursive is not only a disappearing art, it is a skill that can and should be taught to children at a young age (or learned at any age!). Ten reasons to teach cursive are: 1. Relative ease in introduci…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGBpqJ3VFDQ

info

Claim 5: “The new math standards called for data analysis and probability to be incorporated into mathematics education beginning in the early grades, including kindergarten.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The Fortune article mentions that 1990s standards-based movement cut cursive time to include early math requirements for data analysis and probability, but no other provided source confirms this specific requirement for kindergarten.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — In this conversation, the UCLA mathematician and Fields Medalist breaks math down to six essential ideas: numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOMx2BHHWtE

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Disclaimer: On this page you can find the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The standards are temporarily located on this page while we work to address technical ch…
https://corestandards.org/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Start teaching. Math.Primary source analysis through passages with built-in critical thinking prompts. Flashcards for key terms, dates, and concepts paired with assessments that test retention. Map la…
https://wayground.store/?lng=ru

verified

Claim 6: “The Common Core state standards, a nationwide set of academic learning standards for K–12 students, were adopted in some fashion by 45 states between 2009 and 2014.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence confirms the existence of Common Core and that states adopted it, but none of the provided snippets confirm the specific number '45 states' or the exact timeframe '2009 and 2014'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), often called the .45 Long Colt, is a rimmed straight-walled, centerfire handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_Colt

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, time is divided into nine standard time zones covering the states, territories and other US possessions, with most of the country observing daylight saving time (DST) for approxi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_the_United_States

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Type 45 destroyer, also known as the D or Daring class, is a class of six guided-missile destroyers built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy in the early 21st century. The class is primarily desi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_45_destroyer

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 7: “As of 2026, more than 25 states, including Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Michigan, require cursive instruction.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 8: “The law also required children to memorize their multiplication tables.”

CORROBORATED

Both Fortune and the NC Senate report confirm that the 2013 law also required children to memorize their multiplication tables.

verified

Claim 9: “Until the early 20th century, children in the U.S. were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing typically taught to young children today.”

VERIFIED

Evidence from Nautilus states that cursive was a mark of good education by the 19th century and that teaching manuscript (print) lettering only began in the US in the 1920s, confirming that cursive was the primary form taught until the early 20th century.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Lists of school shootings in the United States include: List of school shootings in the United States (before 2000) List of school shootings in the United States (2000s) List of school shootings in t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_school_shootings_in_t…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and a federal c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States Army (U.S. Army) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is designated as the army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As a part of the …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 10: “In the first half of the 20th century, penmanship was often taught as a distinct subject in American elementary schools, where children could spend as much as 45 minutes a day on handwriting instruction and practice.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While general evidence confirms penmanship was a major focus in the past, the specific detail of '45 minutes a day' is not corroborated by the provided search results, although it appears in the context of a later claim's evidence. No independent second source confirms the 45-minute figure.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The .45-70 (11.6×53mmR), also known as the .45-70 Government, .45-70 Springfield, and .45-21⁄10" Sharps, is a .45 caliber rifle cartridge originally holding 70 grains of black powder that was develope…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45-70

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 45 may refer to: 45 (number), the natural number following 44 and preceding 46 one of the years 45 BC, AD 45, 1945, 2045
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The North American B-45 Tornado is an early American jet bomber designed and manufactured by aircraft company North American Aviation. It has the distinction of being the first operational jet bomber …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_B-45_Tornado

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 11: “Learning to write in cursive is also associated with better outcomes for learners with dyslexia and dysgraphia”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 12: “A 2020 study conducted in Norway hooked up 12 adults and 12 preteens to brain-imaging devices while they wrote in cursive, drew and typed. They found that writing in cursive activates the brain waves and neural pathways used for learning and memory.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 13: “First graders in Portugal who were taught cursive wrote in longer "bursts," which the researchers attributed to the unbroken flow of cursive writing.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 14: “The social studies standards, meanwhile, reflected a broader approach to history that brought greater attention to figures such as Mansa Musa, the leader of the Mali Empire in the early 1300s.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and other sources confirm Mansa Musa was the leader of the Mali Empire in the early 1300s. While the specific 'social studies standards' part is not explicitly detailed in the snippets, the factual existence and timing of Mansa Musa are verified.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The history of the Mali Empire begins when the first Mande people entered the Manding region during the period of the Ghana Empire. After its fall, the various tribes established independent chiefdom…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Mali_Empire

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1235 to 1610. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita (c. 1214 – c. 1255) and became renowned for the wealth of its monarchs, especially Mansa Mus…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musa II was the mansa of the Mali Empire from 1374 to 1387. Musa II took the throne following the death of his father, Mansa Mari Diata II. He turned away from the tyrannical practices of his father, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_II_of_Mali

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 15: “A 2019 study of 141 first graders found that children taught cursive read better by the end of the school year than classmates who weren't.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.