The power of a handwritten letter became clear when baseball player Joey Votto penned an apology to Canadian fans. Votto also reopened the debate about whether kids should learn cursive writing.

Teaching children to write by hand seems ... And with many hours of classroom time spent on traditional cursive writing, the benefits, some argue, may not be worth it.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The swirling lines from Linden Bateman’s pen have been conscripted into a national fight to keep cursive writing in American classrooms. Cursive. Penmanship. Handwriting.

Since then, though, there’s been a resurgence of cursive and handwriting education. Less than 10 years ago, only 14 states required schools to teach cursive—but that number has been steadily ...