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The End of Handwriting

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Re: The End of Handwriting

#191

Post by IAmBroom »

UltraSane wrote: post #150
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.…

Reminds me of all the many hours I spent being forced to do long division of 3 digit numbers into 5 and 6 digit numbers. What a waste of time.

Not predicting the computer revolution, and specifically the calculator revolution, is not their fault.

It's like complaining that you were taught how to ride a horse, but it's 1921 now and NOBODY in New York City rides horses!!!

I absolutely have done long division, when a calc wasn't handy - back when that was possible.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#192

Post by IAmBroom »

eviks wrote: post #134
logifail wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s just true that this method reliably worked for me It's not just you. My kids didn't want to hear it, but they're coming round to the benefits of writing notes during their learning. Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-ha... Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/11/1…

The studies you linked are garbage not related to the only part that matters - learning. What they measured is that if you ride a bike while listening your legs will have higher muscle activity, and so will your brain that managed those legs. There is only downside in distracting yourself to have to copy everything verbatim instead of, you know, actually focusing on the material being presented

Cite?

Re: The End of Handwriting

#193

Post by IAmBroom »

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…

The best tests in school were ones that allowed me to bring in a notecard of notes. I would have to ration out the information I was going to write; how and where and how big were all important.

By the time I filled both sides with an entire college class of info I might not remember, I often didn't need the card... so I began doing this for other tests where I couldn't bring the card in.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#194

Post by 1718627440 »

IAmBroom wrote: post #186
XorNot wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teaching cursive seems like a weirdly American obsession, because during school in Australia it just...wasn't a thing. Like teachers did take you through what "running writing" was, but we were never required to actually master it the accomplishments level was just "can you write? Good let's move on to how sentences are structured".

Fascinating! Can anyone from other countries chime in?

I find the discussion very weird. I'm from Germany, cursive is taught in class two. There were people in class who never got it, but mostly one or two. I don't get how people can stand writing in printing letters, doesn't it take too much time to essentially stop writing after each letter?

Re: The End of Handwriting

#195

Post by nancyminusone »

bayindirh wrote: post #107
ACCount37 wrote: post #104

Good fucking riddance. Not every skill is worthwhile. Trying to justify clinging to this obsolete practice simply reeks of sunk cost.

This is an interesting comment. Esp. when there's concrete and mounting evidence for the benefits of it.

I continue to argue that if it were actually, practically useful, it would not be dying. People would just use it all the time because it is so useful. That's not the world we live in.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#196

Post by Tagbert »

eviks wrote: post #134
logifail wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s just true that this method reliably worked for me It's not just you. My kids didn't want to hear it, but they're coming round to the benefits of writing notes during their learning. Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-ha... Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/11/1…

The studies you linked are garbage not related to the only part that matters - learning. What they measured is that if you ride a bike while listening your legs will have higher muscle activity, and so will your brain that managed those legs. There is only downside in distracting yourself to have to copy everything verbatim instead of, you know, actually focusing on the material being presented

good handwritten notes do not copy everything verbatim. You tend to summarize as you write it. That is part of the learning process.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#197

Post by eviks »

IAmBroom wrote: post #192
eviks wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The studies you linked are garbage not related to the only part that matters - learning. What they measured is that if you ride a bike while listening your legs will have higher muscle activity, and so will your brain that managed those legs. There is only downside in distracting yourself to have to copy everything verbatim instead of, you know, actually focusing on the material being presented

Cite?

[flagged]

Re: The End of Handwriting

#198

Post by Podrod »

ourmandave wrote: post #131

Overheard a bank teller the other day saying they're teaching cursive in school again. And she makes her kids hand write thank notes for b'day gifts. Back In My Day we did cuneiform on stone tablets, and were grateful. Postage was a lot less back then too.

Back in my day we didn't bother with this new fangled "writing" nonsense, we just remembered things.

Re: The End of Handwriting

#199

Post by spudlyo »

close04 wrote: post #163
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 nob…

This is one reason why I employ the Scriptorium language learning technique developed by Alexander Arguelles which focuses you on actively engaging with a text by reading it aloud, carefully writing it down while saying each word, and then rereading the written text aloud. I try my best to keep my my cursive consistent and looking nice, but despite my best efforts[0] it still gets a bit scraggly at times.

[0]: https://muppetlabs.com/~mikeh/imperat.jpg

Re: The End of Handwriting

#200

Post by 1718627440 »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #140
ourmandave wrote: post #131

Overheard a bank teller the other day saying they're teaching cursive in school again. And she makes her kids hand write thank notes for b'day gifts. Back In My Day we did cuneiform on stone tablets, and were grateful. Postage was a lot less back then too.

This is a false equivalence. One is a tedious and deprecated way of writing, the other is a complete dependence in technology. Imagine if the power goes down. The kids won't be able to write anymore.

A typewriter wouldn't need power.
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