Why do we still teach children to write?
Discussion
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
The vast majority of our text based communication is via keyboards and increasingly voice to text.
I used to pride myself on a collection of nice pens, expensive pencils and other writing implements and take great pleasure in writing notes. I probably haven’t picked them up for more than 5 years.
Yet children still spend an inordinate amount of time mastering the physical act of writing.
If you could abstract the learning of language from the physical act of writing, could writing come to be seen as archaic and niche as learning Ancient Greek?
What other useful activity could replace that part of a child’s education I wonder?
Could we arrive at a stage where learning to write is downgraded or even eliminated from education?
Or as a mechanical and intellectual task does it still have vital benefit to children’s development? It’s not as if different cultures have the same system but almost all have some system of writing.
The vast majority of our text based communication is via keyboards and increasingly voice to text.
I used to pride myself on a collection of nice pens, expensive pencils and other writing implements and take great pleasure in writing notes. I probably haven’t picked them up for more than 5 years.
Yet children still spend an inordinate amount of time mastering the physical act of writing.
If you could abstract the learning of language from the physical act of writing, could writing come to be seen as archaic and niche as learning Ancient Greek?
What other useful activity could replace that part of a child’s education I wonder?
Could we arrive at a stage where learning to write is downgraded or even eliminated from education?
Or as a mechanical and intellectual task does it still have vital benefit to children’s development? It’s not as if different cultures have the same system but almost all have some system of writing.
Because it is a key life skill, like drawing and talking.
And sometimes batteries / devices are not available.
Digital is ok, but written text can last millennia. I have digital stuff in the loft that I can no longer connect to a device.
A blend is fine - my daughters have reasonable cursive writing skills, and also use iPads etc as part of blended learning.
And sometimes batteries / devices are not available.
Digital is ok, but written text can last millennia. I have digital stuff in the loft that I can no longer connect to a device.
A blend is fine - my daughters have reasonable cursive writing skills, and also use iPads etc as part of blended learning.
I think it is important to learn to write still, there will be times it is needed, and it is part of the learning process.
That said, I left my son's schooling to his mother, divorced, and everytime I asked everything was fine, it wasn't.
Could barely write or read when he left school, early, but this was the time of computer games and new tech.
His hand eye coordination was off the scale, so I put him in a 36 tonne digger, on a site barely big enough for it with a bucket far too big for the quite delicate job of pulling up tarmac, he did it just fine, more digger jobs followed until a friend got him into holidays telephone sales, which he was very good at, taught himself to read and write while using computers to book the holidays, writing notes, customer details etc.
Once at this level, got him into car sales, at which he excelled.
There is life after a poor education.
That said, I left my son's schooling to his mother, divorced, and everytime I asked everything was fine, it wasn't.
Could barely write or read when he left school, early, but this was the time of computer games and new tech.
His hand eye coordination was off the scale, so I put him in a 36 tonne digger, on a site barely big enough for it with a bucket far too big for the quite delicate job of pulling up tarmac, he did it just fine, more digger jobs followed until a friend got him into holidays telephone sales, which he was very good at, taught himself to read and write while using computers to book the holidays, writing notes, customer details etc.
Once at this level, got him into car sales, at which he excelled.
There is life after a poor education.
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.There is something about information processed through writing being internalised in a different way to typing or speaking, but I’m questioning in a fully digital world, will tha be sufficient reason to spend such a lot of educational time on something that is largely superfluous.
I enjoy writing but rarely find it necessary
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.A shopping list is way easier to put on a supermarket trolley than an iphone that keeps locking.
Inlineonline said:
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.There is something about information processed through writing being internalised in a different way to typing or speaking, but I m questioning in a fully digital world, will tha be sufficient reason to spend such a lot of educational time on something that is largely superfluous.
I enjoy writing but rarely find it necessary
Inlineonline said:
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.There is something about information processed through writing being internalised in a different way to typing or speaking, but I m questioning in a fully digital world, will tha be sufficient reason to spend such a lot of educational time on something that is largely superfluous.
I enjoy writing but rarely find it necessary
Inlineonline said:
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.There is something about information processed through writing being internalised in a different way to typing or speaking, but I m questioning in a fully digital world, will tha be sufficient reason to spend such a lot of educational time on something that is largely superfluous.
I enjoy writing but rarely find it necessary
On my desk in the office upstairs are five fountain pens, they're for use in the A4 size note journals I record stuff in, a habit I started around 25 years ago. Also on the desk are two 24" monitors for my PC plus a laptop and occasionally a tablet - oh, and a phone of course.
They're all useful in their own way though none are interchangeable.
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Multiple times, every single day. I doubt many handwrite pages of notes for others but I use a red and black book and a page per day diary for notes which may get summarised into an email or a spreadsheet at some point.Being able to record things and communicate with others quickly without the dependence on tech which often fails, is timeconsuming or is not accessible is a pretty import thing.
I use a couple of fountain pens, a pink biro, and a mechanical pencil every day without fail.
For work, note taking, I normally have 3 notebooks in use at any one time and use them for different themes of work.
Digital notes are inferior in my opinion and much harder to search through - plus I can reference and recall from handwritten notes much easier and as I am a doodler I can often recall specific notes and meetings from doodles that I did in the same session.
Given I have anywhere between 6 12 teams meetings daily Monday to Friday for my substantive employer as well as adhoc consulting roles I undertake and then Sundays I have a couple of calls with a Middle East client, and Saturdays I wrap up the week done, actions o/s, and plan for the week ahead.
A life without writing is something not to look forward to IMO.
For work, note taking, I normally have 3 notebooks in use at any one time and use them for different themes of work.
Digital notes are inferior in my opinion and much harder to search through - plus I can reference and recall from handwritten notes much easier and as I am a doodler I can often recall specific notes and meetings from doodles that I did in the same session.
Given I have anywhere between 6 12 teams meetings daily Monday to Friday for my substantive employer as well as adhoc consulting roles I undertake and then Sundays I have a couple of calls with a Middle East client, and Saturdays I wrap up the week done, actions o/s, and plan for the week ahead.
A life without writing is something not to look forward to IMO.
vaud said:
Doofus said:
Inlineonline said:
How often in your daily life do you put pen (or even rarer pencil) to paper?
Every single day.A shopping list is way easier to put on a supermarket trolley than an iphone that keeps locking.
I still use a diary daily for everything I need to do and dates to remember for appointments, MOT's, car insurance renewals etc, and I have a handwritten shopping list for the things I might forget.
Who needs modern technology when we still have pens and paper available.
I can’t think of an instance where I have communicated with someone in physical writing for at least 10 years probably.
The tech doesn’t fail, anymore than I keep a stock of firewood in case the gas fails.
I’m not saying that writing isnt a viscerally satisfying thing in its own right, I’m just questioning its use
The tech doesn’t fail, anymore than I keep a stock of firewood in case the gas fails.
I’m not saying that writing isnt a viscerally satisfying thing in its own right, I’m just questioning its use
Many, many studies have shown that understanding via the construction of knowledge requires as many different 'brain centres' to be functioning at once as possible.
The considered (and difficult) act of writing slows the process down, forces different parts of the brain to work together, and gives space for the brain to construct connections between new knowledge and old.
In short, you have to write to understand and retain.
It's a shame that educators have gone in the other direction, but the dire state of kids leaving school and university without basic knowledge, let alone critical thinking skills, is starting to build a backlash against the last 20 years of educational practice and the academic literature advocating writing and manual methods is starting to build momentum.
AI is rapidly compounding the issue with kids being very happy to offload the so-called 'thinking' part. If we're not careful, Sam Altman's recent (a few weeks ago) proclamation that "knowledge will be a commodity and we will sell it to you by the hour" will come true. Fortunately, people don't seem to want that for their kids even if the kids do.
The considered (and difficult) act of writing slows the process down, forces different parts of the brain to work together, and gives space for the brain to construct connections between new knowledge and old.
In short, you have to write to understand and retain.
It's a shame that educators have gone in the other direction, but the dire state of kids leaving school and university without basic knowledge, let alone critical thinking skills, is starting to build a backlash against the last 20 years of educational practice and the academic literature advocating writing and manual methods is starting to build momentum.
AI is rapidly compounding the issue with kids being very happy to offload the so-called 'thinking' part. If we're not careful, Sam Altman's recent (a few weeks ago) proclamation that "knowledge will be a commodity and we will sell it to you by the hour" will come true. Fortunately, people don't seem to want that for their kids even if the kids do.
Yes I agree with that and I well remember creating whole A4 pads of elaborately written and illustrated notes in medical school, there’s definitely something about the process that helps both retention and understanding.
But in a practical sense the majority of children’s recording of their work these days is not written is it? So it’s becoming performative.
Should we ban tablets with keyboards to force children to write? Or have tablet free lessons?
But in a practical sense the majority of children’s recording of their work these days is not written is it? So it’s becoming performative.
Should we ban tablets with keyboards to force children to write? Or have tablet free lessons?
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff