Is Handwriting Doomed?
With digital devices’ development and pervasiveness, educators have long promoted ending handwriting instruction. Something I cannot fathom or condone.
Handwriting is not an archaic communication tool to be scrapped for modern keyboarding. Handwriting’s motions creating letters, words and sentences stimulate the brain in a way typing does not.
According to Psychology Today’s Dr. William Klemm, Ph.D., learning handwriting successfully develops controlled visual tracking and high-speed neural responses to the corrective visual feedback loop. (That’s a mouthful.) He predicts:
According to Psychology Today’s Dr. William Klemm, Ph.D., learning handwriting successfully develops controlled visual tracking and high-speed neural responses to the corrective visual feedback loop. (That’s a mouthful.) He predicts:
In short, learning cursive should train the brain to function more effectively in visual scanning. Theoretically, reading efficiency could benefit. I predict that new research would show that learning cursive will improve reading speed and will train the brain to have better hand-eye coordination.
While computers and TV can be educational, Klemm also reports in another article, when letters are not made by your own hand memory-creation lessens. (And I found more; check out this blog, or NPR’s comments.)
As a scribe, a calligrapher and illuminator, I predict more people will seek us out to do what they didn’t learn, to write. I’ve already been asked to do this for simple Christmas gift tags, but that was for beauty’s sake. What about skill and ability?
I’m concerned the troubles my grandkids may experience. Ben may have difficulty learning caused by digital devices and short-forms used in schools. Charlotte’s artistic creativity may be dampened. They are both so wonderful at what they do either would be tragic. Not writing in cursive is one more detriment for their generation and era.
Categories: Musings
An Itinerant Scribe 