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The End of Handwriting

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Re: The End of Handwriting

#161

Post by kqr »

privong wrote: post #101
Swizec wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In France, back when I went to school, not sure now, though I hope it hasn't changed, as a child, you'd only be allowed to use fountain pens. Kids learning to write have constantly stained hands while they learn to use it properly, almost as a rite of passage. I'm very thankful to have learned it like that. In Slovenia, back when I went to school, we all learned with fountain pens and cursive. From 1st to 8th grade…

> If you turned in an assignment written in pencil, it was legit for the teacher to use their eraser and give you an F for turning in empty paper. (They never did this but threatened it a lot). I find this slightly amusing/ironic because many (most?) fountain pen inks are not waterproof. I had a sheet of paper that was full of (fountain pen written) writing on my desk when I spilled a glass of water -- after the pape…

Indeed, pencil is one of the best writing implements for archival purposes. As long as one doens't deliberately try to get the graphite off, it'll probably stay on.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#162

Post by mcdeltat »

odyssey7 wrote: post #67

As a CS student, the way I learned things I needed to memorize was by writing it down / copying / summarizing on paper and studying from that. It’s a little ridiculous to reframe that a significant part of my education was an exercise in copying information over by hand, but it’s just true that this method reliably worked for me. Also: my reading speed was ungodly slow. I think I considered it typical to spend 3 hour…

Similar experience, I took written notes in uni and it worked pretty well. I think my laziness helped - I wanted to write the minimal set of notes possible, so it encouraged me to understand the content, figure out what was significant, then write that down.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#163

Post by close04 »

cyocum wrote: post #111

I find these articles both baffling and frustrating at the same time. I find it frustrating because I spent recess after recess locked inside to practice cursive. After many months of this, my handwriting had not improved. The teachers finally relented and stopped punishing me because the punishment never actually improved my handwriting. My handwriting is now print only and is still horrible and has never improved.…

Isn't handwriting just the activity of writing by hand as opposed to typing a keyboard? Whether it's cursive or block/print, as long as it's written by hand it still has benefits. Many studies link handwriting to better brain connectivity and learning compared to typing.

The act of writing is the one that brings the benefits, not the looks of the result. I don't see a drawback to learning to write by hand even if nobody will ever read it or if it doesn't look good.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#164

Post by [deleted] »

cyocum wrote: post #111

I find these articles both baffling and frustrating at the same time. I find it frustrating because I spent recess after recess locked inside to practice cursive. After many months of this, my handwriting had not improved. The teachers finally relented and stopped punishing me because the punishment never actually improved my handwriting. My handwriting is now print only and is still horrible and has never improved.…

[deleted]

Re: The End of Handwriting

#165

Post by deltaburnt »

odyssey7 wrote: post #67

As a CS student, the way I learned things I needed to memorize was by writing it down / copying / summarizing on paper and studying from that. It’s a little ridiculous to reframe that a significant part of my education was an exercise in copying information over by hand, but it’s just true that this method reliably worked for me. Also: my reading speed was ungodly slow. I think I considered it typical to spend 3 hour…

Same here. Part of me wonders if primary school trains your brain to learn via writing things down on paper.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#166

Post by nvader »

benrutter wrote: post #26
elros wrote: post #10

PSA for people with "bad cursive handwriting" but who would like to improve it: Write with FOUNTAIN PENS. Ideally on thicker paper, with something soft below (like more paper for example). Different writing systems evolved alongside different utensils. Cursive evolved to be written with a quill or a fountain pen. Ballpoint pens are an amazing invention and they have their place, but they optimize for price and practi…

Any tips for lefties? I find in very difficult to avoid complete smudgification of everything I write with a fountain pen, since it takes so much longer for the ink to dry.

I recommend using a sheet of tissue, napkin or old school blotting paper under your writing hand.

This advice is not just for lefties. Although I'm right-handed myself, I like to use a tissue paper under my palm when scribing Wedding Cards, to avoid smudges.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#167

Post by nvader »

tenuousemphasis wrote: post #30
benrutter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips for lefties? I find in very difficult to avoid complete smudgification of everything I write with a fountain pen, since it takes so much longer for the ink to dry.

Try writing right to left!

Why not

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon

Re: The End of Handwriting

#168

Post by michaelt »

privong wrote: post #101
Swizec wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In France, back when I went to school, not sure now, though I hope it hasn't changed, as a child, you'd only be allowed to use fountain pens. Kids learning to write have constantly stained hands while they learn to use it properly, almost as a rite of passage. I'm very thankful to have learned it like that. In Slovenia, back when I went to school, we all learned with fountain pens and cursive. From 1st to 8th grade…

> If you turned in an assignment written in pencil, it was legit for the teacher to use their eraser and give you an F for turning in empty paper. (They never did this but threatened it a lot). I find this slightly amusing/ironic because many (most?) fountain pen inks are not waterproof. I had a sheet of paper that was full of (fountain pen written) writing on my desk when I spilled a glass of water -- after the pape…

> many (most?) fountain pen inks are not waterproof.

I assumed this was for child friendliness - you just know kids are going to get ink on their fingers etc while changing cartridges from time to time.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#169

Post by nancyminusone »

skirge wrote: post #33
IT4MD wrote: post #7

I don't see a lot of people still writing with quills, and there's a reason for that, yet there have been no catastrophic consequences, excepting maybe for "Big Quill". Personally, I think this veers into hyperbole a bit. The degradation in motor skills is barely measurable when compared to common tasks required of people today and we're talking about a skill that has less and less use cases every day. I believe this…

If you don't want to be replaced by machine you need a skill which machine can't replicate and train that skill somehow. Or become a very good machine operator.

Like this?

https://hackaday.io/project/190788-homework-machine

Re: The End of Handwriting

#170

Post by silvestrov »

IT4MD wrote: post #7

I don't see a lot of people still writing with quills, and there's a reason for that, yet there have been no catastrophic consequences, excepting maybe for "Big Quill". Personally, I think this veers into hyperbole a bit. The degradation in motor skills is barely measurable when compared to common tasks required of people today and we're talking about a skill that has less and less use cases every day. I believe this…

> degradation in motor skills

If writing was so important for motor skills then it is very weird that kids only needs this single exercise.

Why don't we have many different things to do with hands then?

Like gym lessions which teaches many different sports/exercises instead of doing many years of the same exercise.

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