Handwriting: Should it continue to be taught?

[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.

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.

Someone promote this man!

I agree it wouldn't be a problem. But a parent will se it very differently I'm sure. Kids can get through locks like no one else can. But yeah they need to learn I'm with you on this one. Teaching kids the dangers of the internet? You would almost have to give them the talk at the same time.

 

[jopomeister]

It should be taught, but I don't think it should be criteria for failing an exam.
I've had bad hand-writing since forever, and it has taken many points of most of my projects. Projects I should've been able to do with a computer.
In general, I find writing a computer easier, faster, and a lot prettier. I just really hate hand-writing, I find it for the most part pointless. Unless you want to write down a quick note in a diary or something.

 

[malestrithe]

There will always be a place for pen and paper in the world, so teaching kids how to use it to print might still be useful in the future. Cursive is no longer necessary in the world, so that should go the way of the dinosaurs.

As for the use of using technology, I really do not mind it. You learn better using devices that you are more comfortable with and kids today are more comfortable with technology than we were at their age. I think it is really dumb to limit kids use of modern technology in learning or communication.

 

[Lurchibald]

There is a BIG difference between standard English Handwriting and Chinese calligraphy

 

[Grayjack]

Yes. In fact, I need to practice my handwriting. My handwriting is fucking terrible.

 

[floppylobster]

Riiiight, we should stop teaching guitar as well. Because you can just make those noises with a synthesizer.

I mean in a way it makes sense, because kids these days have not been taught to speak properly so why bother teaching them to write? Or should I say rite (or right?) amirite?. Those damn kids, mumble, mumble, get off my porch!

God damn whose handwriting produced that reCAPTCHA?

 

[lemby117]

I dunno I'm Dyspraxic so neat writing is just about impossible so I would say that I don't think that it should be taught past year 6 age 11 and that people should learn to touch type but I guess for normal people it's verry easy to jot down notes while iit is easier for me to make a note on my net book.

 

[JochemDude]

Yes, ofcourse we should. For exactly the same reasons we should learn to calculate without a calculator, they can use the spellcheck and operate the keyboard, but can't write and can't calculate.

There is a BIG difference between standard English Handwriting and Chinese calligraphy

Also this, our handwriting is putting a few strokes which'll form words, with them every symbol has to be a fucking rembrand

 

[Dreaming Dan]

Defiently.

I wish some of the pople I work with had better handwriting, although handheld devices are nearly everywhere there are still going to be times where you need to actually write something down.

Hand writing is a very important skill that all sorts of things build on, imagine being taught your alphabet on a qwerty keyboard.. thats just goinging to mess with your head.

 

[Chrishu]

Come on. Writing by hand, yes. We'll never be THAT reliant on computers. Cursive, however, is a waste of time.

 

[justcallmeslow]

I think teaching people how to spell and punctuate better is more important. You can get that wrong even on a computer. I'm not sure which is a greater barrier to communication though, both cause problems.

My handwriting is pretty terrible but mostly legible. I'm chalking that up as a win.

 

[junkmanuk]

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

My kids have been told they have to write in joined up writing. Their un-joined writing is still not good enough and joined up it becomes a scrawl. I've had conflicts over the teachers because I refuse to let them use joined up until their non-joined writing improves.

I'd rather my kids write legibly than supposed 'correctly'.

 

[azukar]

Another reason not explored yet: practising handwriting is also good for hand-eye coordination and developing fine motor control skills. I (a teacher) see too many kids come through the system with poor fine motor control skills, and it affects so many things beyond just handwriting.

 

[Fightgarr]

We are not at a point in our society where paper has entirely been replaced by screens. This kind of thing also devalues, an incredible amount, the importance of children actually forming the shapes themselves as a learning tool.

 

[Andronicus]

But if there's more people with bad handwriting in the world, doesn't that mean we'd have more doctors? Or have I got my correlations around the wrong way?

 

[Dags90]

There is a BIG difference between standard English Handwriting and Chinese calligraphy

Yeah, I don't strictly see the parallels. Especially with the bits about fueling patriotism.

I think the whole "cursive as a professional form of writing" has sort of fallen out of practice. I don't know though, I still like writing in cursive some times, it's a bit faster because you don't have to lift the pencil/pen as much.

I learned how to write well and in cursive in pre-K so I thought having to learn it in second grade was kinda stupid.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I don't think anyone would care if we got rid of cursive. No one uses it, and the people who do basically scribble it, making it damn near impossible to read. But hand writing will ALWAYS, ALWAYS be important. I think this is a bigger issue in China because of complicated the language is from a writing perspective. Can you imagine having to write each of those thousands of characters JUST right to get your point across? It'd be terrible.

A 26 character alphabet, imo, is a far superior format.

 

[JezebelinHell]

I have read articles talking about dropping cursive handwriting but not printing in the US.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-23-cursive-handwriting_N.htm
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/01/21/cursive-handwriting/

Cursive is the faster way to write, that is why it exists. Raising and lowering a pen or pencil repeatedly to the paper takes longer. Although I am sure some people can print faster than others printing is slower in general.

Handwriting should always be taught. Too much of history, personal, national, international is written word. Although you can debate that national and international history will be available in other forms, it is highly unlikely that any of your personal history will be. To deny future generations the ability to read something their great, great, great, great grandparents wrote in scrawled cursive will lead to even less connection to where we've been and how far we have come. You can debate that this will have little impact on most people but try telling that to someone that has experienced it. Nothing like finding notes your grandma has written you in cards you gave her over the years. Even knowing cursive I still have to decipher some of it.

Besides, it is bad enough people come out of school unable to:
* Read an analog clock. This has actually been happening for many years, my cousin is in her 30s and hasn't managed to learn this at any point. Every school I go into has analog clocks so I have no idea how kids are figuring out how much time they had left to run the hell out the door before cell phones.

* Count back change. No this does not mean being able to count back the amount the machine tells you. It means that if someone spent $10.69 and gave you a $20 you could give them proper change. Which would be like this: Take their $20, give them a penny and say $10.70. Give them a nickle and say $10.75. Give them a quarter and say $11. Count ones to them up to $15. Give them a $5 and say $20. Congrats, you have just given correct change to someone without a machine telling you and verified it aloud with the person at the same time. It isn't rocket surgery.

* Properly place a dollar sign. Yea, I know other countries do it after the amount but unless you have lived in another country, you look ridiculous. I know you haven't been taught to put it after at any point in your life so trying to use that as an excuse just fails. And seriously, when it is on a sign in front of a business and no one going by it daily can be bothered with realizing it or correcting it I figure they have a group of lazy morons working there.

 

[DeltaEdge]

I honestly think that by the time that you are learning how to type on a keyboard, you would already know how to write. Even if no one ever really taught you, the letters are right in front of your eyes! If you understand them, then I'm sure that you would be able to write them on paper. It would still be best to teach people to hand-write to ensure that they don't write their letters like "a" and "g" sand "Q" exactly like how they appear in typing to avoid drawing them askew. By the time you are learning to type frankly, I would be shocked if you couldn't write and you were learning how to type. If anything though, I think that they should require a refresher hand-writing skills class in High School to help student's neaten their hand writing and work on their grammar and some vocab a bit. I know that you will say, "That's what English is for genius" but most English classes by High School I see really don't work on much grammar, spelling, and hand- writing. Instead, they make you read books most of the time as well as short stories and analyze and summarize them on a computer. I think that they should either make a separate class, or incorporate that into English class so that way people who graduate from High School and pass English actually know how to speak English properly and can differentiate between words like your and you're and there, their, and they're. It is one of nature's great mysteries how some people are so uneducated, that they cant spell the word spell, yet they somehow graduated from a decent High School with full credits. That just baffles me. Oops, I seem to have digressed. Well the point is that my hand-writing and a lot of other people's hand writing around my age and up is deplorable and most people tend to reflect back when they were about 10 when their hand-writing was at it's peak with all of the spelling and hand-writing tests to keep it sharp.