Hanceville sixth-graders excel at national cursive competition

Special to The Times

Beginning in August, Cathi Bradford, Hanceville Middle School sixth-grade English teacher reintroduced cursive writing the the curriculum. Students were taught the three Ps of penmanship: Pencil position, paper position and posture. Following these foundational basics, students learned the “why” behind cursive in order to make it relevant in their lives. This year, this practice culminated in a class set of submitted entries to the fourth annual Cursive is Cool international writing contest.

The sixth-grade girls swept in their division. Alondra Lopez received first place, Caydence Sansing received second place and Lelana Williamsen received third place. In the sixth-grade boys category, Zachary Campbell received first place and Antonio Lopez received second place. Creative Writing awards were awarded to Austin Cadiere and Ariona Phillips.

The American Handwriting Analysis Foundation the response from students across the U.S. and Canada was so great, a separate contest in French was added this year.

“The contest is our way of getting the kids to practice their cursive and to think about why they like it,” Campaign for Cursive Chair Gayna Scott said.

“We received some amazing entries. It was great to read the fun reasons kids like cursive and the wonderful samples they submitted of their best handwriting. The judging is always such a difficult thing to do.”

Sponsors for the USA contest include the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation (AHAF), Amsterdam Printing, Dixon Ticonderoga, CursiveLogic, eeboo, Fahrney’s Pens, New American Cursive, Pelikan, PEN World, Sakura of America and Think Board.

Campaign for Cursive is a grassroots, all-volunteer movement gaining support across the country and the world. National Handwriting Day and International Handwriting Week events in January promoting cursive handwriting took place in schools, public libraries, historical societies, and radio and TV stations across the world. Everyone was encouraged to pick up a pen and write, take selfies of themselves with their handwriting, and do a “pencil toast” to promote the importance of writing by hand.

More information is available at campaignforcursive.com and cursiveiscool.com.