Why the slow decay of children’s handwriting skills spells trouble
Why the slow decay of children’s handwriting skills spells trouble
Growing numbers of students are typing rather than writing their exams, due to fears their messy or illegible penmanship will hurt their marks.
I mean, they’re not really typing either. Watch them, they hunt and peck with a finger, because that’s how touchscreens work.
They’re not really learning EITHER skill well…and not having either is a bit of a problem.
Can't forget speech recognition.
That's how I've been typing for over the last 2 decades since I never had a typibg class like my parents did. I'm a little better than hunt and peck, but I'm not much better.
I'm a two finger typer, I did have formal typing lessons in school but I never learned to touch type, my teachers used wpm and accuracy to determine if we were on track and passing, and my two finger method was working for me in those metrics.
I'm missing a knuckle and have bradydactyly, so my teachers sort of gave up when I asked for extra advice in learning to touch type, and I had no motivation to learn because everyone just had this attitude of "oh they're disabled so they have to type weird, don't bother teaching them the right way". But I probably am fully capable of learning to touch type if I tried.
I'm not sure what my method would officially be called. It's similar to hunt and peck because I'm only using my index fingers, but I'm not looking at the keyboard when I type, so there's no real hunting.
Though if I have to borrow someone else's computer I do need to hunt and peck for a few hundred words until I get a feel for that specific keyboard.
My handwriting is also shocking, and that I do blame on my hand deformities and disabilities. I'm dyslexic and dyspraxic and was diagnosed late in life so never had any support with handwriting growing up. My journals look like a serial killer because each entry starts of nice and tidy, with even spacing and kerning and text in line, then as it goes on the spacing gets uneven, lines get slanted, I'll use 3 totally different fonts in the same word, like writing "anɴɑ" instead of "anna", oh and naturally I write the "n" first then have to go backwards and fit that first "a" in. It happens because my cognitive ability to write fatigues so fast but my motivation to keep writing and writing fast never wanes so I just power through it and my handwriting suffers, and then my hand spasms because even with an adaptive pen grip, I still have functional issues in my hand.
But I love typing and I love writing by hand even if I'm not good at either, and I think that's the important thing - not giving up on one method entirely.
By all means make students handwrite where it’s realistic… notes, forms, etc. but writing by hand, constantly, for over an hour, is just ridiculous.
It’s not just the writing they’re learning. Writing gives a consistent way to practice fine motor skills in general.
There are some fucking klutzy kids around who’ve never done much drawing or colouring, never done much craft with scissors, never played an instrument…they’ve never had all that many organically occurring opportunities to practice fine motor skills. If the only practice they get with those broad skills is writing, and then we cull the writing, when do they learn?
I was the last kid in my grade to get a pen license.
Don't worry. Hopefully 2024 will be a better year for you!
Ouch.
Someone call Hollywood, we have a certified blockbuster story right here!
Double ouch. This is like being back in primary school.
I never got my pen license.
I remember starting highschool and my teacher questioning me for using greylead on all my assignments, I told them I never got my pen license and they laughed and told me to use pen.
They didn't explain that a pen license wasn't a real thing, it wasn't like you legally required a permit to use a pen.
But all through primary school "getting your pen licence" was such a big deal I genuinely thought it was some big formal process.
I had so much anxiety that first year of highschool thinking I was breaking the rules using pens without a licence until my mum explained that it's just a fun motivational tool for young kids learning to write and I'm an idiot.
Good.
Hand writing is lame and causes pain for long periods.
Typing too.. On normal keyboards
What they don't talk about is how fucked some teachers were when it came to teaching writing.
Fucking drill sergeant ex nuns had 1st through 3d graders writing the letter S for hours. That's not how you're supposed to learn what a cramp is. I've got a lump on my middle finger cradles a pencil to this day.
Even this article has issues. It recommends holding the pen at a low point for "more control", which translated to "you have to hold the pen at the very end" in real life, which led me a lot of cramping and the pen sliding away.
While I wouldn't say I quite struggle with writing, my hand writing isn't particularly good nor neat. I know how capitalisation and punctuation works, but if you were judging me based on my hand writing you'd probably think I dropped out after kindergarten
Am I missing something? Aside from the below comment, I can't see anything that really talks about why handwriting is important.
“We know that fluency in thinking and fluency in writing are intimately linked.”
Why does the decline in student handwriting "spell trouble"?
Handwritten info tends to be retained better than typed. Something about the physical act of writing makes it stick in the memory. There’s been a measurable downward tick in kids’ ability to recall information when prompted, and it may be linked to more kids no longer writing. So there’s that.
Handwriting is some of the most consistent practice kids get with fine motor skills in general. More and more kids are learning to do things like tie their shoes, button or zip their own clothing, open packets or manipulate a pair of scissors later than expected, because they’re getting less opportunity - between less writing, less drawing, less messy art/craft stuff, less of everything hands on - to develop strength and control in their hands. So there’s that.
Handwriting hasn’t actually been replaced with typing. If you actually watch them…they hunt and peck with one finger, because that’s how touchscreens work. If would be different if the skill of handwriting had been replaced wholesale by typing, but as it stands it seems they’re not learning EITHER skill very well. A kid without the skills to do either is a kid who’s going to struggle to communicate clearly beyond a certain level of complexity.
It’s not the handwriting itself. It’s everything the handwriting practice helps them develop.
I used writing by hand as a mnemonic device with adolescents gaining literacy late. Writing by hand requires the use of a part of the brain not utilised in typing. It requires involvement at a great depth.
I absolutely retain information differently from writing and online notes. Ditto reading print and electronic media. Bills also, print stuck to the fridge gets paid, anything email evaporates out of my brain.
I get all that - I still feel that the best way to commit to memory when I take notes in meetings is to handwrite my notes.
My point is that the article doesn't go into any detail about why declining handwriting in students "spells trouble". It's a shitty headline for what the article actually reports.
Do it though?
Paywalled
the education system is not getting on with the times and needs an overhaul. we are still teaching kids using tech, methods and subjects from what? 100 years ago?