A viral video shared on Facebook claims schools stopped teaching cursive to students in order to prevent them from reading founding documents such as the Constitution.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence cursive was removed from school curricula to prevent children from reading founding documents. The Constitution and other founding documents are available online in print.

Fact Check:

The video, which has been shared over 3,200 times, features a woman speaking about elementary school curricula regarding teaching children cursive. “Do you know why they stopped teaching cursive to children in elementary school?” the woman in the video said. “I’ll tell you why. It’s because our Constitution, our Bill of Rights is written in cursive and they no longer want generations from here on out to know how to read it.”

While cursive was dropped as a requirement for elementary students in the U.S. in 2010 when Common Core standards were adopted, according to The New York Times, there is no evidence it was done to prevent children from reading founding documents. At least two dozen states, including Ohio and Texas, have reintroduced the practice to their elementary school curricula, the outlet reported.

Anne Trubek, the author of “The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting,” told The New York Times that one of the reasons for resurgence of cursive writing was due to “convention, tradition, conservatism.”

“People were upset about the idea that you might not seem educated if you didn’t know cursive,” she said. (RELATED: ‘Its Time To Put That Damn Thing In A Shredder’ – Did Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer Say This Quote About The Constitutions?)

Even if a state does not require elementary students to learn how to write in cursive, the Department of Education requires every school that receives federal funding for a fiscal year to “hold an educational program about the U.S. Constitution for its students,” further adding to the claim’s dubiousness. Additionally, 30 states require high school students to complete a semester-long civics course, according to the Center for American Progress.

Transcripts of the founding documents, including the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, are available online on the National Archives website in print, so even those who cannot read and write in cursive can access them.