A member of the state House of Representatives wants the state’s elementary school students to put down their iPads and pick up a pen.

Rep. Joseph Adams, R-Hawley, plans to introduce legislation that will require cursive handwriting be taught in the commonwealth’s schools. Several states and some foreign countries have taken similar action in the past several years.

“In an increasingly digital world, cursive has fallen by the wayside. However, there are compelling cognitive, developmental, and practical reasons for ensuring students have at least a basic grasp of cursive writing,” Adams wrote in his legislative memorandum. .

At least 18 states have laws on the books requiring cursive to be taught, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida,Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina,Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. California’s requirement was signed into law last year after seven years in the legislature while New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill in May requiring schools to teach cursive and multiplication tables.

The Associated Press reported in September that many Swedish teachers opened the school year with a new emphasis on printed books, quiet reading time and handwriting practice and devoting less time to tablets, independent online research and keyboarding skills.

The return to more traditional ways of learning is a response to politicians and experts questioning whether the country’s hyper-digitized approach to education, including the introduction of tablets in nursery schools, had led to a decline in basic skills.

Swedish education officials said some of the country’s decline on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, an international assessment of fourth-grade reading levels, from 2016 through 2021 was due in part to the country’s embrace of technology in the classroom. In 2021, Swedish fourth graders averaged 544 points, a drop from the 555 average in 2016, according to the AP, though that performance still placed the country in a tie with Taiwan for the seventh-highest overall test score.

“Adams said research shows learning cursive activates areas of the brain involved in executive function, fine motor skills, and working memory,” Adams wrote in his co-sponsorship memorandum. ” The linked, flowing motions of cursive writing help reinforce neural connections and build hand-eye coordination in developing brains, he wrote, while students who learn cursive may show improved language fluency, enhanced creativity, and better recall.”

Adams also said many students need cursive to read historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

“Mandating cursive writing education will allow students to actively read seminal documents that shaped our democracy which is vital for an informed, engaged citizenry in the generations to come,” he wrote.