Does cursive have a place in a computerized world?

EUGENE, Ore. - These days kids can do homework, research, send mail and communicate with one another on a computer. In a world that's going more and more tech savvy at such a young age -- some kids learn to type in kindergarten -- is cursive losing its place in the classroom?

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"I really like cursive and it's really fun," says third grader Jyllian Rogers.

"We do almost everything in cursive," adds Olivia Frost. "It's just so fun."

A recent USA Today report cites a Vanderbilt study that says as of 2007, 90 percent of teachers across the U.S. still taught cursive. Like Shelly Carlton's class, the time spent on it has gone down.

Carlton has been teaching for more than 20 years. She says her class at Corridor Elementary School spends about 15 minutes a day learning cursive. This is less than she used to spend in the past, in part to make room for teaching about technology.

"Oh, we've had to tone down with everything with the adding of technology," she says. "You have to try to find time to fit everything in."

Kids here learn cursive in third grade.

"It's kind of milestone like driving, or learning algebra," she says.

Carlton says while typing is a necessary tool these days, this curly-cueing of letters is a school district expectataion and does serve a purpose.

"I think it's a skill that's a good fine motor skill for kids and I think it's important to know how to read it," she says. "In this age of new technology it brings things back to paper again."

Her students tell me they love writing in cursive. They say it's easy, except for a few tricky letters. Olivia says G's are the hardest. "You always mess up and it always looks like a 'J,'" she says.

"The hardest were the capital L's," adds Zane.

These kids say they plan on writing in cursive far into the future; however, adults I spoke with say in the real world, cursive doesn't really exist, unless a person is signing a check or writing a personal letter the old-fashioned way.

"I still get letters from my grandmother in cursive and I think it looks very classy, very nice," says Ryan Collinsworth.

Even though computers might be a quicker and more present-day way to communicate, if it's up to these kids, cursive just might make a comeback. 

"I like the computer and I like cursive but I like cursive a little more," says Jyllian.

"If I had to choose between typing on the computer and cursive, I would choose cursive," says student Logan Gambill. He says schools should definately keep teaching cursive "because you need to know how to do it before you get into fourth grade."

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