Cursive handwriting is less common nowadays, and the requirement to teach it has even been removed from the Common Core Standards for public education. But now some states are taking a stand. Alabama recently joined California and Louisiana in passing a law that mandates cursive proficiency for its students.  

Tamara Plakins Thorton, American History Professor at SUNY Buffalo and author of Handwriting in America: A Cultural History  (Yale University Press, 1998), and Cheryl Lundy-Swift, National Workshop leader for Handwriting Without Tears, discussed how handwriting is taught in the public school system.