As I prepare birthday cards for the coming month I am pondering the recipients ability to read my note. I include a hand-written message in each. That's just my thing. But as I completed the task, I thought of my children and what really seems like a lost of art of handwriting, or how they term it - cursive script.
My youngest will be going into Junior High as my oldest completes High School. Both rely heavily on their computer and other IT equipment for completing their school tasks. Though we have surely put "pen to paper" in this house, the modern protocol for getting the job done IN The SCHOOL SYSTEM is via electronics. In that my oldest can read "cursive" marginally, while my youngest, not at all.
Have we done them any favours?
I don't think so.
Don't get me wrong, they can both read and write-well. Printing and understanding each of their letters. But writing is faster than both printing or typing. Added to this is the beauty of the flow of the letters and words on the page as an art in itself.
Will these future generations look at our historical documents, all hand written, and treat them like Egyptian Hieroglyphs?
I don't know, really. Just because it's easier to teach kids printing only and concern ourselves with typing as the modern form of written communication, I can't help but mourn the loss and lament another basic skill gone.
My youngest will be going into Junior High as my oldest completes High School. Both rely heavily on their computer and other IT equipment for completing their school tasks. Though we have surely put "pen to paper" in this house, the modern protocol for getting the job done IN The SCHOOL SYSTEM is via electronics. In that my oldest can read "cursive" marginally, while my youngest, not at all.
Have we done them any favours?
I don't think so.
Don't get me wrong, they can both read and write-well. Printing and understanding each of their letters. But writing is faster than both printing or typing. Added to this is the beauty of the flow of the letters and words on the page as an art in itself.
Will these future generations look at our historical documents, all hand written, and treat them like Egyptian Hieroglyphs?
I don't know, really. Just because it's easier to teach kids printing only and concern ourselves with typing as the modern form of written communication, I can't help but mourn the loss and lament another basic skill gone.