Signed and secured: Why a new Florida law is bringing cursive back to classrooms
New Florida law is bringing cursive back to classrooms
It is a skill that was nearly completely erased from the modern school blackboard, but cursive writing is officially making a major comeback in the Sunshine State.
ORLANDO, Fla. - It is a skill that was nearly completely erased from the modern school blackboard, but cursive writing is officially making a major comeback in the Sunshine State.
A new state law taking effect this Wednesday mandates that Florida public school students learn the looping lines of cursive.
The backstory:
Under the new requirements, students must demonstrate mastery of the writing style before they are permitted to move on to middle school.
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To see how the next generation handles the transition, FOX 35 caught up with a local student named Presley. When asked to sign her name on camera, she executed it flawlessly — a skill she acquired because she attends a local private school where cursive was never removed from the lesson plan. Now, state leaders want every public school child to have that exact same tool.
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While critics might view the law as an outdated nod to tradition, handwriting and security experts say the change addresses a massive modern vulnerability: identity theft. In an era dominated by digital typing and printed text, a simple printed name is incredibly easy for fraudsters to replicate. A personalized, fluid cursive signature, however, contains intricate variations unique to the writer, serving as a powerful layer of personal security.
What's next:
School districts across Florida are finalizing their lesson plans to implement the new cursive standards. Parents can expect the mandatory instruction to officially roll out to elementary classrooms over the course of the upcoming school year.
What they're saying:
"I hope that transitioning over into public schools that more kids can have the opportunity to learn it," said parent Pierce Acosta.
"You get more inherent complexity, and when you get more inherent complexity, it is a stronger security feature. In a person's cursive writing, there's going to be some variation — whether loops or retraces — look for range variation in that writer," said Thomas Vastrick, Apopka Forensic Document Examiner.
The Source: This story was written based on information shared by Florida Statutes, and Thomas Vastrick, Apopka Forensic Document Examiner.