Telegraph photo by GRACE PECCI Nashua Board of Education Curriculum and Evaluation Committee members recently rejected a request to make cursive writing a requirement in the district’s curriculum, with those in opposition stating that teachers should focus on other needs.

By GRACE PECCI

Staff Writer

NASHUA – Will students leave New Hampshire public schools without knowing how to sign their names in the traditional cursive manner?

This was one of the questions brought to the forefront during a recent Nashua Board of Education Curriculum and Evaluation Committee meeting.

“Children should know how to write their signature. That’s part of their identity. For me that’s part of what a public school should include,” BOE member Howard Coffman said.

During the meeting, two English Language Arts Curriculum Specialists/Assistant Principals, Erin Anderson from Sunset Heights and Abby St. Pierre from Amherst Street, addressed committee members about their views of cursive from the standpoints of curriculum and instruction. St. Pierre said no teachers are asking her if they should teach cursive writing.

“We are not excluding it because we have an opinion on cursive. It’s not currently in the curriculum because our curriculum is based on state standards at this point,” St. Pierre said during the discussion.

The state adopted the Common Core State Standards nearly a decade ago.

As noted by the New Hampshire Department Of Education, “The CCSS are not a national or state curriculum nor are they federally mandated. Standards do not tell teachers how to teach, but provide a kindergarten through 12th grade roadmap for what students should know and be able to demonstrate. It remains up to each local school district to design curriculum to help their students successfully achieve the standards.”

At a state level, teaching cursive is not mandatory. In March 2015, a bill was brought to the Senate that would require public schools to continue teaching cursive and multiplication tables.

However, the final draft of that bill only encouraged districts to teach both rather than require them. Cursive is not currently embedded as a requirement for a grade level in the Nashua School District because it is not a state standard.

However, St. Pierre said some teachers in the district may still be teaching it, though she did not know for sure.

Assistant Superintendent Garth McKinney said an investment in consistent materials and support would be needed from the curriculum budget if the district were to make teaching cursive a requirement in curriculum.

“I think the challenge would always be finding time in the course of the day. Those teachers have an extended literacy block, devoted time for math, science, social studies, as well as intervention time,” McKinney said.

McKinney said for the past two years, elementary-level classes use Lucy Calkins Units of Study of Writing.

“We’re invested in the production of quality writing, not necessarily cursive or the manufactured print of that,” said, adding officials are looking for kids to develop their ideas, come up with a solid main argument, being able to argue a point of view with supporting details in their writing.

“I have a hard time believing that in the year 2019, when I read materials about the traits and skills that employers are looking for, I have yet to see writing cursive on that list. So of all the many things that we’re asking our teachers to do with the limited time and resources, I would ask for some understanding of all the other needs,” McKinney added.

Susan Porter, the Curriculum and Evaluation committee chair, said she doesn’t believe cursive is critical to developing good writers and that the conceptual piece of writing is more important than the mechanical.

“If we had the time and some teachers wanted to teach cursive, I’d think that’s great,” Porter said.

St. Pierre said she and Anderson agreed.

In contrast, committee member Doris Hohensee made a move to add cursive as a district standard. However, there was no second to her motion.

Hohensee suggested the district could start initially in making sure children know how to write their names in cursive and then incrementally put it up to where they could read cursive.

“So I mean, to do just the basics and later incrementally move up, I don’t think would be a big imposition on our curriculum,” Hohensee said. “It might even be a novelty that would get their interest. It’s like art – it’s another way to develop their intellect.”

Coffman said he was concerned about the inconsistency, as some schools are teaching cursive and some are not.

“Children across the district should be receiving the same instruction within the same grade level,” Coffman said.