DeKALB | Senior history major Orri Henkle hasn’t written anything in cursive since high school. He still thinks he can do it — sort of.

“I’d be able to do it,” he said. “It wouldn’t come out very well though.”

As technology becomes more prevalent in society, Henkle doesn’t find himself alone as people use computers and other devices more and more to write and communicate.

While cursive is still being taught at many grade schools across the country, certain local school districts are debating whether it should be part of the curriculum anymore.

“Some current discussions are taking place in the Aurora area on cursive writing — whether or not to continue it,” said Donna Werderich, assistant professor of language arts.

When cursive is taught, it’s done between second and fourth grades for about 10 minutes a day in language arts classes, she said.

As an educator of future language arts teachers, Werderich must make sure that her students are proficient at handwriting. Some have trouble with the cursive part of that equation, however.

“They’re relearning something they learned in second or third grade,” she said. “It is challenging at this level.”

A 2007 study by Vanderbilt University found that cursive is taught in 90 percent of third grade classrooms nationwide for an average of about 60 minutes a week. The survey also found that it’s taught to 50 percent of second graders.

Pooja Uppalapati, computer science graduate student, said she hasn’t written in cursive since learning it in grade school. “It’s kind of useless,” she said.

Werderich said there are three main reasons why cursive isn’t used as much as in years past and why the debate over whether to continue teaching it is taking place. Those reasons, she said, are technology, a difference of opinion on the value of it and the pressure teachers are under to improve students’ reading and writing skills.

Even though Henkle doesn’t trust his cursive writing ability, he said he thinks it should continue to be taught to elementary school students as good penmanship is a valuable tool for them to have. And he’s noticed that he’s not the only college student not using the writing style.

“I think it probably has most to do that no one writes anything to anyone anymore,” he said. “I know in class that no one has good penmanship anymore.”