By Ava Berger Halle O'Brien writes during after-school cursive club, held by teacher Sherisse Kenerson, at Holmes Middle School in Alexandria, Va. Anna Rose Layden for NPR hide caption Twelve-year-old Sandi Chandee wants to be a doctor when she grows up. But that's not why she memorized one of the longest medical terms in the English language: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. In Sherisse Kenerson's after-school classroom, Sandi takes out a piece of paper and fills up a whole line to spell the word that describes a type of lung disease. The word allows her to practice cursive β her new favorite method of writing. When she becomes a doctor, Sandi, who signs her cursive autograph with a heart above the i, is determined to have a perfect signature. Twelve-year-old Halle O'Brien, Sandi's cursive partner-in-crime, agrees. "I prefer writing in cursive," Halle said. The pair are proud members of the Holmes Middle School cursive club in Virginia. Cursive has been on the upswing for years now.β¦