SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — At Anasazi Elementary School in Scottsdale, cursive is taught starting in third grade.
“It starts off with tears and frustration and then it kind of moves into confidence and competition,” third-grade teacher Donna Javinett, said.
Arizona is one of less than half of U.S. states to require students to learn cursive.
“You get some pushback, you know, ‘you need to teach our kids keyboarding’ or you know, ‘they don't need to write in cursive’ but they need to read historical documents,” Javinett said.
Javinett recalls how when Braedyn Fehl joined the school part way through third grade, she was excited to learn the writing method.
“When you write it just kind of feels magical,” Fehl, who’s now a fourth-grade student, said.
Fehl was determined to learn handwriting and did so well, she was the winner for third-grade students in Arizona for the Zaner-Bloser handwriting contest.
But, when Fehl joined Angie Griffith’s fourth-grade class, she wanted to master cursive even more.
“From the start Braedyn's goal for both personal and academic was to win nationals,” Giffith said. “So I said, ‘Well, let's do it!’”
More than 80,000 students across the country enter the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, and are all required to write the same sentence containing all the letters of the alphabet.
“I was really determined and I had a lot of mistakes and so I would bring them to Ms. Javinett. And then he would tell me if I should make a new one,” Fehl said. “And that happened about five times.”
Fehl practiced for months to make her handwriting as perfect as it could be.
“I really wanted to push through,” Fehl said. “And even though I kept messing up, I knew that I would get it.”
On Friday, in front of her whole elementary school, she was announced one of 20 national winners in the competition.
“Very excited and very proud,” her father, Brent Fehl said.
But Braedyn Fehl isn’t done yet, she plans to enter the competition again in fifth grade.
“I’m gonna try,” she said.
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