When kids put pen to paper, chances are they are printing.

But Toronto’s Catholic board, hand-wringing over the handwriting skills of its students, is now looking to make sure all of them learn cursive.

Parents have told her their children can’t sign their name, “or they have been handed a handwritten note and can’t read it,” said Trustee Ann Andrachuk. She proposed a recent motion — unanimously approved — asking board staff how to reintroduce cursive in all schools, and how early children should start learning it.

“This has been on my mind for quite some time,” she added. “I see the printing of our kids, and their writing is pretty bad — and this really came out of me dropping into some of my schools and talking to teachers and talking to parents.”

“It’s hit-and-miss if you are going to get it,” said Andrachuk.

Across Canada and the United States, concerns have been raised that cursive is becoming a lost art in an age where keyboards and keypads rule.

However, a handful of states, calling cursive an essential skill, are looking at or have reintroduced it into the curriculum, including Tennessee and California. In Ontario, cursive is mentioned in the curriculum starting in Grade 3, but as one of many ways for students to present their work.

“It’s not a requirement as part of the (Ontario) curriculum, and the way it was put to me by some teachers is that they would love to teach it, but there are so many things that have to be taught that it gets dropped,” Andrachuk said.

Lauren Ramey, spokesperson for Education Minister Liz Sandals, said writing is an important part of the elementary curriculum, but “in a 21st century learning environment, students are also required to develop computer skills … school boards are free to increase the emphasis on cursive writing, as long as they are meeting the learning expectations in the curriculum.”

For now, Ontario students only learn it if teachers find the time. Enrique Olivo and William Lawrence, the Toronto Catholic board’s student trustees, both attend schools in the city but had very different experiences.

Olivo, now a student at Scarborough’s Neil McNeil high school, learned cursive back in Grade 3 and it was a huge deal that continued throughout his elementary years.

“All the students were really excited about it, I remember that clearly,” said the 17-year-old. “I remember everyone in the class writing all of their assignments in cursive. It was something teachers encouraged.”

He still writes when taking notes in class — although he prefers a laptop for fast-talking teachers.

“My accounting teacher writes in cursive” on the chalkboard, he added, but estimates about 20 per cent of his classmates can’t read it.

For Lawrence, who is the same age but attended schools in the west end, cursive was covered briefly in Grade 3 and then never again.

“It feels like I have lost an art form that has almost been passed down for generations,” he said. “I’m disappointed; I didn’t know anyone else (learned it), I thought it had been phased out across the province.”

He describes his printing as “pretty nice” and his attempts at writing “not the nicest, but legible.”

“That said, most of my assignments, and most things I do, I do on the computer … I can use the cursive font if I want.”

Andrachuk said many families in her area who hail from Europe wonder why schools here don’t teach it. Overseas, “some countries introduce it before printing, because it is easier to learn, rather than block letters,” she added. “It’s smooth flowing and you are always going in one direction.”

If teachers have difficulty finding time to teach cursive, Andrachuk wonders if it could be incorporated during reading time.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Olivo is now part of a network of about 10 pen pals who first met during a summer exchange. The group decided to go “old school” and write each other letters every couple of weeks.

“It’s interesting, it feels a lot more human — that’s another aspect about cursive writing,” he said. “I feel I’m more involved with what I’m writing down, whether it’s a class note or a letter to a friend.”

Last year, a Durham Region father was shocked when he took his then 14-year-old son to get a passport, and the teen couldn’t sign the form because he’d never learned cursive.