The case for handwriting is stronger than ever says the author despite people crediting their good handwriting to their catholic school education, the decline of handwriting due to smartphones, and AI which has made it barely necessary for humans to think and jot things down.
US public schools still require that kids are taught handwriting so it’s not a lost art, but there is evidence that digital natives are less ready for writing now than students in the past.
Learning handwriting might be necessary to learn everything else and “we don’t yet know what we are losing in terms of literacy acquisition by de-emphasizing handwriting fluency,” says Karen Ray, a lecturer in occupational therapy.
Knowing how to write has cognitive benefits as students need to think about something long enough to write it down to remember it more thoroughly than if it’s typed, and mathematicians and scientists need to take notes by hand.
Learning handwriting may be one of the only ways to test comprehension and prove students aren’t using AI.
