The proliferation of devices in daily life has led to an international handwriting crisis. Teachers, parents, and politicians around the world are debating why they should bother spending time teaching what some say is a dated skill. Accustomed as we are to speedy, wifi-connected devices, we\u2019ve come to prize the efficiency of typing and there seems to be no point to picking up a pen and scribbling on paper when keyboarding is so convenient, neat, and easy to copy-and-send.<\/p>\n
Yet print and its squiggly cousin cursive are making a comeback in some US schools after scientific studies have proven their cognitive utility and because parents are clamouring for the preservation of the practical skill.<\/p>\n
For example, starting this fall in Louisiana, third to 12th graders will again study penmanship after a law was passed making it a requirement in 2016 (teachers got one year to prepare). Fourteen states are now including cursive in curricula after a decade where it seemed doomed to become an abandoned and outdated art.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just nostalgia\u2014the efficiency of the keyboard may be overstated, at least in some cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a myth that in the era of computers we don\u2019t need handwriting. That\u2019s not what our research is showing. What we found was that children until about grade six were writing more words, writing faster, and expressing more ideas if they could use handwriting\u2014printing or cursive\u2014than if they used the keyboard,\u201d University of Washington professor Virginia Berninger told the Washington Post. A leading expert in the field of handwriting education research, Berninger\u2019s extensive work with students in elementary school indicates that learning handwriting improves kids\u2019 ability to think.<\/p>\n
The reasons for taking handwriting seriously are worth considering even if you\u2019re not a kid or a parent worried about education. Anyone can benefit from penmanship\u2019s cognitive benefits, whether you\u2019re taking notes at a meeting or just trying to figure out what you think.<\/p>\n
Brain scans during the two activities also show that forming words by hand as opposed to on a keyboard leads to increased brain activity (pdf). Scientific studies of children and adults show that wielding a pen when taking notes, rather than typing, is associated with improved long-term information retention, better thought organization, and increased ability to generate ideas.<\/p>\n
No one can say why this is exactly, though researchers surmise one reason may be because when we write by hand, every letter of every word demands different actions, engaging the brain more. When we type, we repeat the same moves over and over again, whatever the word.<\/p>\n
It may well be that the physicality of shaping letters cements concepts in the mind. For example, to type the word \u201ctyping,\u201d I made the same motion on the keyboard six times, choosing which letter to type but not forming them. But if I were to write the same thing by hand, I\u2019d have to shape six different letters and put them together. That takes more effort and seems to both demand more of the brain and leave a deeper imprint on the mind than typing. That imprint appears to be critical when learning new things.<\/p>\n
Another reason that penning is more effective than typing seems to stem from handwriting\u2019s limitations. Handwriting when taking notes forces us to make choices.<\/p>\n
Researchers from Princeton University concluded in three studies of adult students taking notes on laptops and in longhand that transcription was less effective than selective translation of the information. \u201cWe found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand\u2026whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers\u2019 tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
Perhaps when we capture less of what is said verbatim, we pay more attention. Since we can\u2019t scribble everything that\u2019s being said as fast as we can type it, we end up forced to make choices when handwriting, processing the information as we take it in instead of putting it all down automatically.<\/p>\n
There are practical reasons to keep the art of penmanship alive, putting questions of cognition aside.<\/p>\n
Louisiana state senator Beth Mizell introduced the cursive bill at a constituent\u2019s suggestion after he told her that the high school students he hired for summer jobs couldn\u2019t read old handwritten land-transfer documents. (She didn\u2019t give details about what these particular jobs involved, but it is true, generally speaking, that even when old records are scanned into new computerized systems, they may still contain cursive.<\/p>\n
Mizell also heard from parents that their kids couldn\u2019t read old family letters or even sign documents. \u201cPeople were really upset that kids were no longer being taught to write cursive,\u201d she told the Shreveport Times. \u201cThey print where the signature would be. It\u2019s just little things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For adults wondering why they should hand-write when they have no time, rarely have to take in information that comes in lecture form, and have already established a signature, there are also some unscientific reasons to pick up a pen. For one, great writers often drafted by hand and then typed, even after the advent of the typewriter\u2014Susan Sontag, Truman Capote, and Vladimir Nabokov, to name a few. Today, Joyce Carol Oates continues with this tradition, though she\u2019s also on Twitter and doesn\u2019t shirk technology generally. Same goes for Quentin Tarantino, who says poetry can\u2019t be typed on a computer, and Neil Gaiman, whose novels are drafted in notebooks.<\/p>\n
Plus, there\u2019s the priceless benefit of limiting distraction. Technology can be a trap. The simple act of shutting your laptop and putting pen to paper can help you to improve focus. There\u2019s less chance you\u2019ll end up spending your time online reading tweets and articles when you should be writing.<\/p>\n
Article source: www.qz.com<\/a><\/pre>\n\n<\/div>\r\n