Students, keep practicing those swirly letters: state lawmakers say they feel so strongly that kids should know how to write in cursive that they'll push to keep it in schools next year.

Terre Haute Senator Tim Skinner and Oldenburg Senator Jean Leising said they were horrified when they learned the state no longer required the writing style be taught. They said this week they plan to submit bills when lawmakers return to Indianapolis in 2012 that would reverse that.

Just because schools are no longer required to teach cursive does not mean they are excluded from teaching it, said Stephanie Sample, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Education. The
change was included in April when the state adopted national "common core standards" for teaching students, she said.

Skinner, a retired high school government and economics teacher,
said he plans to either submit his own legislation or sign onto Leising's. Cursive has been one of the few constants in American education, he said.