Ask grade school students today to write a few sentences with (gasp!) pens, and chances are many will render something that looks a little like the words you're reading now: individual letters, unattached to one another. Cursive — that graceful and efficient form of writing that was developed over centuries to accommodate the finicky quill pen — is a dying art in the Internet Era, often not even taught in schools anymore.

Now some in Illinois want to turn back the clock and revive those flowing lines and curly characters. Legislation pending in Springfield would require cursive instruction in all the state's elementary and high schools. The House passed it last week and it awaits debate in the Senate.

The sponsor, Rep. Emanuel Welch, a Chicago-area Democrat, argues that even in a world of ubiquitous keyboards, text-ready cellphones and increasingly reliable voiceware, there is a place for the classic scrawl of cursive.