This morning while I was listening to NewsTalk ZB to Justin Du Fresne, I heard that the Ministry of Education had decreed that handwriting is no longer to be taught in NZ schools.
I can well imagine the logic would go something like this: Children today are being taught to use the computer to express themselves. During this age of increasing computerisation the art of writing on paper will no longer be necessary in the future as everything will be done electronically, even if there is still some need to write legibly now. So, in order to prepare for this bright future and save teachers time (to teach the very necessary new green social sciences and socialist values) we need to cut out handwriting altogether.
Last year, when my children were still at school, I was amazed that my older child's new teacher's solution to his inability to write legibly was to suggest that he do a touch typing programme at home so he could do all his work on the computer.
Now, more than a year later his handwriting has dramatically improved. Since pulling both my children out of school last year, handwriting has been one of the staples of our daily routine. Just a bit of time every day on a focused handwriting programme was all it took to improve the legibility and speed of my son's writing.
We don't do any work on the computer, as I believe strongly that the less barriers to learning there are, the better. The computer is a barrier. If you need a computer in order to learn because you are used to only writing on a computer, then you are at a severe disadvantage.
For myself, the physical act of writing can put information into my head in a way that I can't duplicate in any other way. I used to find that studying by writing an incredibly effective way of memorising. This is also how I memorise my shopping lists - writing them out puts them in my memory, then I go off shopping and leave the list at home.
A child who has learned to work with a pencil and paper will not be limited by lack of electricity or finances in order to write. But a child that has only worked on a computer may not even get it into their head he could take notes on paper.
In other words, if we take away competency with very simple materials and replace those materials with an electrical tool that requires a great deal before it can be written on, then we create a barrier.
Not a huge deal in itself, but you add that to the serious mangling of language that is going on right now (such as partner = wife, de facto, person sharing your bed this week), it seems to me that the removal of handwriting as a skill and a tool will add to a massive learning and communication breakdown in the future.
Maybe we'll even go back to the age where people could only sign their name with an 'X'.
I can well imagine the logic would go something like this: Children today are being taught to use the computer to express themselves. During this age of increasing computerisation the art of writing on paper will no longer be necessary in the future as everything will be done electronically, even if there is still some need to write legibly now. So, in order to prepare for this bright future and save teachers time (to teach the very necessary new green social sciences and socialist values) we need to cut out handwriting altogether.
Last year, when my children were still at school, I was amazed that my older child's new teacher's solution to his inability to write legibly was to suggest that he do a touch typing programme at home so he could do all his work on the computer.
Now, more than a year later his handwriting has dramatically improved. Since pulling both my children out of school last year, handwriting has been one of the staples of our daily routine. Just a bit of time every day on a focused handwriting programme was all it took to improve the legibility and speed of my son's writing.
We don't do any work on the computer, as I believe strongly that the less barriers to learning there are, the better. The computer is a barrier. If you need a computer in order to learn because you are used to only writing on a computer, then you are at a severe disadvantage.
For myself, the physical act of writing can put information into my head in a way that I can't duplicate in any other way. I used to find that studying by writing an incredibly effective way of memorising. This is also how I memorise my shopping lists - writing them out puts them in my memory, then I go off shopping and leave the list at home.
A child who has learned to work with a pencil and paper will not be limited by lack of electricity or finances in order to write. But a child that has only worked on a computer may not even get it into their head he could take notes on paper.
In other words, if we take away competency with very simple materials and replace those materials with an electrical tool that requires a great deal before it can be written on, then we create a barrier.
Not a huge deal in itself, but you add that to the serious mangling of language that is going on right now (such as partner = wife, de facto, person sharing your bed this week), it seems to me that the removal of handwriting as a skill and a tool will add to a massive learning and communication breakdown in the future.
Maybe we'll even go back to the age where people could only sign their name with an 'X'.