Cursive writing is part of the state standard, but it varies with each classroom. Now that AB 446 has been signed, learning cursive is going to be new for students and for some teachers.

“Cursive handwriting supports students’ efforts in areas the Common Core Standards measure, including written expression and critical thinking,” he tells Reader’s Digest.

To teach cursive handwriting, or not to teach it, is a topic that can divide, but recently updated educational guidance in Ohio comes down on the side of teaching cursive handwriting.

But for Lauren Hand, an eighth-grader at St. Pius V School in Melville, cursive is a craft of precision, patience and practice. And one in which the 14-year-old is without peer for her grade.