Handwriting: Should it continue to be taught?

[Jordi]

Hand Writing is incredibly important for the development of the brain so I would say it's necessary

Can you elaborate on this? I'm genuinely curious, because the two reasons that this might be true that I can come up with (fine motor control and language skills) can (I think) also be achieved with typing on a keyboard. Do you have a reference perhaps? I'm genuinely interested.

Anyway, aside from the above, I think that it is very important that people continue to be able to write. However, as some people have already pointed out, I don't consider cursive and calligraphy important at all. All "nice" documents will be typed out anyway. The only thing that is important is that you are able to make notes when computers aren't conveniently available (e.g. in the margin of an article, a sudoku in a newspaper, most schoolwork if they can't afford to use computers).

I dont have references on me. HOWEVER I was talking to some Neurosurgeons and other people of the like and funnily enough this convo came up. They say that you use more brain capacity and and it requires finer motor skills to actually write something than to press a button. They were much more technical about it that I am and it went for longer but that was pretty much the gist of it. It also develops better cognitive pathways or something like that :S. hope that helps somewhat?

Yes, a little. I did a little Googling around and found some popsci articles on this. It seems that most of the referenced studies didn't really properly compare kids trained in handwriting to kids trained in typing, (it's either compared to untrained typists or doing nothing).
However, I can see now that it would indeed engage different fine motor skills and more importantly that it would simultaneously engage visual and motor processes in the brain to a greater extent that pressing a button/key with an image on it would. It seems likely to me that this may facilitate the development of better "cognitive pathways" as you say.

I do think that typing should also be taught from a young age though (and it probably is nowadays). I think the fine motor skills needed for it are slightly different (since you use both of your entire hands, instead of just three fingers of one), and I think faster communication would facilitate the expression of ideas (since the printing would be less of a bottleneck). One of the articles I saw actually made this latter claim, but they said that handwriting was faster than typing, which seems really odd to me if the individual is trained in both.
Furthermore, I imagine learning multiple input methods is a little of like learning a new language (except just for your hands/fingers), which is probably also good for the brain.

 

[SomeBrianDude]

It reminds me vaguely of the US trying to make a pen that wrote in space while the Russians just used a pencil. This is a similar principal.

You do know that's a myth, right? Firstly, using a pencil in zero gravity isn't a good idea. The tip can break off can be dangerous to the electronics in the spacecraft, as can graphite dust. Both NASA and the Societ space agency used them at first, but they both ended up using space pens. Secondly, the development of the space pen was an entirely private endeavour. They were created and manufactured by Fisher and sold to NASA and the Soviets, and NASA never approached the company and asked them to develop space pens, or gave them any funding to do so.

OT: Computers will never completely take over, there will always be times when a note has to be hand-written, even if those times become increasingly fewer and further between. Being able to write legibly will always have some importance, so yes, it should be taught. There's not much that annoys me more than when someone leaves me a note of what needs doing at work and it's so poorly written that it can't be read.

 

[Bigsmith]

 

[JoesshittyOs]

It reminds me vaguely of the US trying to make a pen that wrote in space while the Russians just used a pencil. This is a similar principal.

You do know that's a myth, right? Firstly, using a pencil in zero gravity isn't a good idea. The tip can break off can be dangerous to the electronics in the spacecraft, as can graphite dust. Both NASA and the Societ space agency used them at first, but they both ended up using space pens. Secondly, the development of the space pen was an entirely private endeavour. They were created and manufactured by Fisher and sold to NASA and the Soviets, and NASA never approached the company and asked them to develop space pens, or gave them any funding to do so.

I think you missed the point of the story. I'm not saying whether it's true or not, I'm just trying to point out that completely phasing out handwriting for something a little bit more complicated and unreliable is foolish.

 

[arandomnutter]

Hand writing should be taught as your ink can run out of printer....

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

last i checked, we still use paper, and in fucking ridiculous amounts, so hell yes they should continue teaching it

 

[SyphonX]

I'm sure calligraphy and 'handwriting' are two entirely different skills, in this case.

 

[Llil]

Yes, it should be taught. It's really annoying to try reading horrible handwriting. I'm studying to become a teacher, and I can only imagine how difficult it will be to decipher some of the test answers and such. A good way to encourage writing at least somewhat clearly is to just mark all answers that are too poorly written to read as wrong.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I was kind of indifferent to it until I saw the Patriot bit. Patriotism is the worst thing ever, why is your country better then any other? I would never fight for my country just because it was my country. If we were in a war and I thought another country was in the right then I would join them if I could ever be bothered joining up.

 

[Von Strimmer]

Hand Writing is incredibly important for the development of the brain so I would say it's necessary

Can you elaborate on this? I'm genuinely curious, because the two reasons that this might be true that I can come up with (fine motor control and language skills) can (I think) also be achieved with typing on a keyboard. Do you have a reference perhaps? I'm genuinely interested.

Anyway, aside from the above, I think that it is very important that people continue to be able to write. However, as some people have already pointed out, I don't consider cursive and calligraphy important at all. All "nice" documents will be typed out anyway. The only thing that is important is that you are able to make notes when computers aren't conveniently available (e.g. in the margin of an article, a sudoku in a newspaper, most schoolwork if they can't afford to use computers).

I dont have references on me. HOWEVER I was talking to some Neurosurgeons and other people of the like and funnily enough this convo came up. They say that you use more brain capacity and and it requires finer motor skills to actually write something than to press a button. They were much more technical about it that I am and it went for longer but that was pretty much the gist of it. It also develops better cognitive pathways or something like that :S. hope that helps somewhat?

Yes, a little. I did a little Googling around and found some popsci articles on this. It seems that most of the referenced studies didn't really properly compare kids trained in handwriting to kids trained in typing, (it's either compared to untrained typists or doing nothing).
However, I can see now that it would indeed engage different fine motor skills and more importantly that it would simultaneously engage visual and motor processes in the brain to a greater extent that pressing a button/key with an image on it would. It seems likely to me that this may facilitate the development of better "cognitive pathways" as you say.

I do think that typing should also be taught from a young age though (and it probably is nowadays). I think the fine motor skills needed for it are slightly different (since you use both of your entire hands, instead of just three fingers of one), and I think faster communication would facilitate the expression of ideas (since the printing would be less of a bottleneck). One of the articles I saw actually made this latter claim, but they said that handwriting was faster than typing, which seems really odd to me if the individual is trained in both.
Furthermore, I imagine learning multiple input methods is a little of like learning a new language (except just for your hands/fingers), which is probably also good for the brain.

I agree that both need to be taught early however I can see why parents want to hold off on the computer learning. I mean the earlier the kids type and learn a computer they are exposed to the internet (which is not exactly kid friendly). Hmmm it's a fine line by the sounds of it.

 

[Vault101]

well duh it seems like a no brainer

when the apocolypse comes and there ARE no computers how are you going to spread massages and warnings?

like writing a "keep out" sign in your ememys blood on the wall of your personall fortress, thats an important skill

 

[Astoria]

Of course it should be taught. How many people carry around a computer or something 24/7? And how many people want to open up one to jot down a simple note? Handwriting will always be important because, well, it's just easier. Also, I'd say it's really important in China because their characters are tricky to get right. One wrong stroke and it means something completely different.

 

[silasbufu]

I'm all against this idea in theory, but I feel for those kids as well. Chinese writing sure looks like a pain in the ass.

 

[Volturism]

Yes, of course it should be taught.

 

[laggyteabag]

As long as they dont tell you that you must write in certain way, when i was in primary school i was always being told to "join my letters" because it looked "neater", not only did i hate it i also couldn't read what i was writing! Now i just write in the normal fashion of un-joined letters that actually look like letters and not an abomination against humanity

 

[Plumerou]

somehow this reminded me of how a friend in school used to have a cursive handwriting that was comparable to the ancient writings of the lost of city of atlantis, in other words it was unreadable

but OT, handwriting is important, we cant always rely on technology, after all how will you leave a message in a wall on a safe room when the zombie apocalypse comes?

 

[ProfessorLayton]

When I was young, handwriting wasn't strongly emphasized. I had poor writing skills and I guess teachers thought it would be something I'd grow out of. But now, I have horrible handwriting and you can barely read what I put down. True, I spend a lot of time typing and if I have the option to type, I will almost always take it, but handwriting is a very important aspect of school as it will follow you the rest of your life. Certainly you'll use it more than you will other things you learn in school.

 

[Jordi]

Hand Writing is incredibly important for the development of the brain so I would say it's necessary

Can you elaborate on this? I'm genuinely curious, because the two reasons that this might be true that I can come up with (fine motor control and language skills) can (I think) also be achieved with typing on a keyboard. Do you have a reference perhaps? I'm genuinely interested.

Anyway, aside from the above, I think that it is very important that people continue to be able to write. However, as some people have already pointed out, I don't consider cursive and calligraphy important at all. All "nice" documents will be typed out anyway. The only thing that is important is that you are able to make notes when computers aren't conveniently available (e.g. in the margin of an article, a sudoku in a newspaper, most schoolwork if they can't afford to use computers).

I dont have references on me. HOWEVER I was talking to some Neurosurgeons and other people of the like and funnily enough this convo came up. They say that you use more brain capacity and and it requires finer motor skills to actually write something than to press a button. They were much more technical about it that I am and it went for longer but that was pretty much the gist of it. It also develops better cognitive pathways or something like that :S. hope that helps somewhat?

Yes, a little. I did a little Googling around and found some popsci articles on this. It seems that most of the referenced studies didn't really properly compare kids trained in handwriting to kids trained in typing, (it's either compared to untrained typists or doing nothing).
However, I can see now that it would indeed engage different fine motor skills and more importantly that it would simultaneously engage visual and motor processes in the brain to a greater extent that pressing a button/key with an image on it would. It seems likely to me that this may facilitate the development of better "cognitive pathways" as you say.

I do think that typing should also be taught from a young age though (and it probably is nowadays). I think the fine motor skills needed for it are slightly different (since you use both of your entire hands, instead of just three fingers of one), and I think faster communication would facilitate the expression of ideas (since the printing would be less of a bottleneck). One of the articles I saw actually made this latter claim, but they said that handwriting was faster than typing, which seems really odd to me if the individual is trained in both.
Furthermore, I imagine learning multiple input methods is a little of like learning a new language (except just for your hands/fingers), which is probably also good for the brain.

I agree that both need to be taught early however I can see why parents want to hold off on the computer learning. I mean the earlier the kids type and learn a computer they are exposed to the internet (which is not exactly kid friendly). Hmmm it's a fine line by the sounds of it.

So teach them on a typewriter.

I can somewhat see your point in that I agree that that could very well be a concern of some parents. I don't really think it is a very valid concern though, because I really don't think being good at typing is any kind of requirement for being able to use the internet. If you can read, you can hunt and peck on a keyboard. And ability to get on the internet depends on knowledge of how to start it and how well parents locked it away on their computer.

Aside from the fact that I don't really think typing classes would greatly increase internet use, I do think that it might be useful to teach how to use the internet properly at a young age as well. But that's another issue.

 

[beniki]

Well, yeah, handwriting is rather important, and necessary. At least until we invent the telepa-pen, which instantly scribes your thoughts for you. But to be honest, that kind of technology probably makes written language redundant.

Eastern hand writing is a little different from Western though. In the West we don't really care how a letter is made, as long as it vaguely looks like one. In the East, the rules are a lot more rigid, with even the correct stroke order necessary for each character, particularly with Chinese.

This was fine when writing was limited to a select elite, but recently it's become a much more basic part of life. The Chinese government tried to address this and make things simpler, hence the divide between the graceful flowing Traditional characters, and the angular utilitarian Simplified ones.

The problem these days is simply the proliferation of Roman characters around the world due to the internet. We had the same thing in Europe during early history, when the spread of Christianity pretty much wiped out the older runic style writings. In China and Japan, Roman script is everywhere.

Is it a bad thing? Probably not. But old dogs don't like to learn new tricks, and so of course there will be the cry of cultural destruction. I don't think so though. Already there is a divide in the internet language, even using the same alphabet. You only have to look at emoticons to see this And I can't believe I spend so much time translating them for people orz

The future will see some startling changes in how we use our written language, but, ever the optimist, I see it as more of a natural evolution, rather than usurping local culture.

...

So yeah, hand writing should still be taught in schools.

Kind of went off topic there...

orz