We need to learn to read cursive writing

When I was 21, I got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and almost died. I had a 10-month-old son. I realized then that life is fragile.

I decided I wanted to make sure he had my thoughts and opinions written down, so he could discover who I was and what I thought about things. I began a journal - in cursive.

I chose cursive, because I wanted him to see my handwriting. For me, a signature or a letter written by a relative that has since passed is a little treasure. Handwriting shows one's personality.

Were they shy and wrote with small letters or verbose with strong loops? Was the script messy and hurried or the letters form as perfect as possible?

When my son turned 18 years old, I gave him the journal of my thoughts about his childhood and the world - its tragedies like Columbine and the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle.

He didn't take much interest in it. I thought it was because he was a teenager and just wasn't mature enough to see the value of it.

A few years later, I discovered that one of my younger sons could barely read cursive. That's when I realized his older brother wasn't necessarily disinterested; he couldn't read it.

I had no idea that my children were not being encouraged to use cursive in middle school and high school. I had no idea that their training stopped with in elementary school. Why in all of those parent-teacher conferences from as far as back as the 1990s was this left out?

"So what," you say? "Who needs cursive writing anymore? We use computers now. We don't need it."

After a presentation recently, I was talking to Janene Holter, a senior supervisory special agent for Attorney General Josh Shapiro's office. She said banks are having a terrible time with adults who cannot sign their names in cursive. I doubt they are the only business seeing a problem with this.

In my home, I have pushed cursive literacy on my sons whether they like it or not. I've always thought of education as the ticket to freedom, independence and control of one's future. Education opens doors to a variety of careers and in turn, it opens your income potential.

Historically, illiteracy has been used as a means of oppression.

If you can't read or write, you can't read the small print in contracts. You are forced to trust that the person who can read it is telling you the truth.

The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence are written in cursive. And yes, I know they are in print on the Internet. And yes, the Internet versions are probably accurate, but there are millions of people who can read the cursive versions and question if something pops up different from the original. Unethical people do things when they think no one will be able to stop them.

If cursive illiteracy continues, then in the span of about 50 years the majority of the population will not be able to read these documents that control our lives.

We can stop this from happening by speaking up now. We can ask our schools to teach our children more than their signature, teach them to read and write in cursive, and expect them to be able to do so in middle school and high school.

History repeats itself. Greed will always be in the world. Some people will always look for ways to take advantage of others for their own benefit.

I want my children and grandchildren to be able to defend and protect themselves. I want them to be able to question if someone says the Bill of Rights says something that it doesn't.

I understand that laws change and amendments are made, but the Constitution of our government doesn't. Our representatives have been sworn to uphold it. Our soldiers have died to protect it. Let's not let something so simple and so preventable as cursive illiteracy crumble it.