“That’s crazy,” said Kounts, looking at line after line of the perfectly slanted script in the Constitution.

Washington state does not require cursive in school curriculums.  Most teachers still teach it anyway, but that doesn’t mean students use it much. A Latin teacher at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School noticed the decline in her students’ handwriting, from cursive to print around five years ago and in some cases very messy print.  She asked a friend, a retired third grade teacher to give her A.P. Latin class a cursive refresher. In addition to reviewing the basics, the teachers brought in letters and historical documents written in longhand that the students, raised on computers, marveled over.  But the reality is that cursive can go the way of the dodo bird and much won’t suffer, except perhaps the thank you note which still seems to have a hold, albeit a weak one, in modern etiquette.  But I have to wonder… where will girls wistfully scribble the initials in hearts that decorate notebooks and book covers when those go away? Annotation and post-it apps in their e-books?