Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting

Third grader Michael Capps listens to his teacher during a cursive-writing lesson at Charlotte Park Elementary School in Nashville, Tenn.

—Joon Powell for Education Week

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki

Handwriting still has a place in the digital age, its proponents say, and they hoped that what they billed as a "summit" on the subject this week would spotlight their case for the enduring value of handwriting in the learning process.

The Washington conference was designed to draw together research from psychology, occupational therapy, education, and neuroscience to demonstrate handwriting's role in students' physical and cognitive development, states' learning standards, and the classroom.

The occasion also marked National Handwriting Day, Jan. 23—the birthday of that most famous exemplar...