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Cursive Comeback?

SCRANTON — At a time when much of our communication comes through a device, many think handwriting is a lost art. But some think it’s an art that ju...

SCRANTON -- At a time when much of our communication comes through a device, many think handwriting is a lost art. But some think it's an art that just hitting its renaissance.

Inside the University of Scranton's Weinberg Memorial Library, was a classroom of teachers, all fans of good handwriting.

"Handwriting is much more than just transferring information. It's much, much more than that," said Michael Sull.

Sull is the master in this classroom -- a master penman, one of only a handful of people in the world who have that title.

It's an art perfected in the 18th century in America. Sull says it's just as relevant today as it was then.

"Handwriting develops the cognitive sense in children, as well as motor skill development. Handwriting helps people remember more of what they've written instead of just pressing keys that they have no more thought of after they press it," Sull said.

Sull is here teaching teachers from several school districts in our area. He represents Zaner Bloser, an organization more than a century old which sells handwriting curriculum to schools.

Pittston Area's curriculum director says her school recently brought handwriting instruction back.

"What we're finding out, too, is our students don't know how to read cursive writing at all, so when they're going to the high school and teachers are putting things on the board and they're going, 'We can't read that.' So it's important that they still have to. They still have to sign their name on documents. So we just thought it's an important concept," Janet Donovan said.

For Michael Sull, good penmanship is a skill and an art. We watched him work with the same kind of ink that was used to sign the Declaration of Independence. That document would have been a lot less impactful in an email.

"If we don't encourage our students, our young people, to express themselves through handwriting, all that will be remembered of them is what they typed on a piece of paper from a computer. It won't have any personality."

See what your handwriting style says about you:

what-does-your-handwriting-say-about-you

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