CNN Article: Handwriting on the Decline

[panzerfan]

I blame computers...

 

[HudsonHawk]

Are you suggesting that kids today are smarter than we were when we were their age? I remain unconvinced.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm 46, and yes, I think in general, kids today are "smarter" than the ones of my generation. But that's not really my point. I think kids today have many issues that present obstacles to their success. Primarily it's about expectations. They expect instant gratification, they expect a trophy for just showing up and expect nothing but positive reinforcement. But it's not because they are dumb. It's because they never learned certain life lessons. They were never allowed to fail, and consequently they don't handle adversity well. Pinning their struggles on them being functionally illiterate or unable to do simple addition/subtraction is really missing the mark.

 

[fashion frank]

The gadgetry has certainly bred impatience. And again, there's lots to point out with the young folks...in business, in social settings, in work ethic, etc. but I don't think they're dumb. Far from it.

I agree with you when you state " I don't think they're dumb. Far from it " what I was pointing out is that all of this tech. stuff is dumbing down all of us and more so with young people.

I have to admit that my 12 year old daughter will sometimes " assist" me when I get stuck with which button on the remote to press such as "hdmi" or video to watch a movie or what have you ,it's like she just knows what to do , she has been using computers at school and home but all that being said you are so right when speaking about life lesson and street smarts that I grew up learning they have no such knowledge .

All the Best , Fashion Frank

 

[Story]

Several skills that every kid once learned in school are going the way of the dodo in a hurry. Diagramming sentences is practically an extinct art, for example. Cursive handwriting and memorized multiplication tables look to be swiftly headed that way. Apparently, the next thing that kids will no longer need to learn is spelling and grammar.

http://news.yahoo.com/professor-says-kids-no-longer-learn-spelling-grammar-132007441.html

 

[fashion frank]

http://news.yahoo.com/professor-says-kids-no-longer-learn-spelling-grammar-132007441.html

Wow that was an eye opener. she states "my phone does all the spelling so why would I need to know how to spell " can you believe that , boy I hope her phone never dies LOL !

That's the problem right there, relying on a gadget instead of your brain .

Thanks for sharing that with us.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

 

[Feraud]

http://news.yahoo.com/professor-says-kids-no-longer-learn-spelling-grammar-132007441.html

Spelling and grammar are “a bit unnecessary because they are skills that were very essential maybe 100 years ago but they are not right now,” Mitra said. “Firstly, my phone corrects my spelling so I don’t really need to think about it and, secondly, because I often skip grammar and write in a cryptic way.”

Was it really as far back as 100 years ago that spelling and grammar were essential? That's pure baloney and very disingenuous.

Silly articles are written and repeated ad nauseam and the next thing you know it's gospel.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Reader beware. Possibly the most important part of that article is "reports the Daily Mail".

To a British person, this speaks volumes. The Daily Mail is a meme. It represents, and caters to, all the small minded "it was better back then", bring back the birch/hanging/hanging's too good for 'em, little England, reactionary attitudes, types who tend to jump on these quotes and spin them out of any semblance of reality.

I see that the Mail is quoting The Times, itself not really an overly credible source of news (Murdoch press) which also has a reputation for a bit of head-in-the-sand NIMBYism.

I'm willing to bet Mitra has been misquoted somewhere.

 

[Feraud]

Thanks for the perspective Bk. It's a good reminder to consider the source..

 

[HudsonHawk]

Wow that was an eye opener. she states "my phone does all the spelling so why would I need to know how to spell " can you believe that , boy I hope her phone never dies LOL !

That's the problem right there, relying on a gadget instead of your brain .

Thanks for sharing that with us.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

Like most things in life, spelling is one of those things that improves with practice. By writing or seeing a words often enough, it just becomes second nature to spell them, or notice a misspelling. Even now, sometimes I'll write a word out and think "that just doesn't look right". I'll look it up, and sure enough it wasn't right. With features such as autocorrect, one loses that perspective. Also, by using the abbreviated chat-speak and "cryptic writing", one loses all sense of homophones. Which drives me nuts.

 

[Edward]

I do believe handwriting as we know it may eventually go the way of the hieroglyphic. Still, technology is not necessarily always to hand for every single thing, so there will always be a need to make some sort of mark on paper. Maybe a pictoral system will take over again; maybe in two centuries' time the world will be using Mandarin characters rather than the Roman alphabet. Who knows?

My own handwriting is not what it once was, perhaps, given that it's now over a decade and a half since I last had any practical need to handwrite anything more than a greetings card for anyone else to read. I do still handwrite a lot for myself, though - I made an active choice not to keep a journal long ago, but my social and work diaries are all handwritten, and I prefer a notebook over using the notes function in an electronic device. I can actually type far faster than I can write legibly now, though I have to edit more for spellings when I type. Typos, of course - not spelling mistakes proper.

One of the reasons I think we dropped the obsessive teaching of those very carefully formed letters in the UK was because most people are crap at it, and never become good at it. This is un-necessarily demoralising for a child.

I've never met anyone with handwriting I couldn't read after a fashion. My worst experience was trying to convince American undergraduates to PRINT their name at the top of an exam paper, so that we could read it. Most of them would use their signature (a sign of extreme pretension), not caring that we had to alphabetise the papers, and that a poorly formed stylised upper case "D" looks just like a poorly formed upper case "G", etc.

Far more worrying is the lack of understanding of the construction of a sentence, let alone a paragraph. This is the stuff that's important (both to the communicator and to the person being addressed), not how neat a kid's writing is.

Agreed... my main concern about neatness is for exam scripts. Every year I have a few tough ones. Once years ago we had to have a student in to dictate what they had written as none of us could manage it. Personally, I'd have simply failed them, but I'm harsh. Roll on the day we all use Examsoft, or something similar.

I think that's grossly overstating it. Most people today know a lot more math than their grandparents did, at least the concepts, which is far more important than memorizing things like "times tables".

And there's nothing wrong with using a calculator for complicated functions, or even simple ones for that matter. I'm sure there were people 100 years ago who complained about the "kids these days" who couldn't do simple calculus without the help of a slide rule.

We're back to Socrates again, really.

The gadgetry has certainly bred impatience. And again, there's lots to point out with the young folks...in business, in social settings, in work ethic, etc. but I don't think they're dumb. Far from it.

Seems to me the problem is not one caused by the technology, but by poor use of the technology. Technology etiquette needs to be taught along with basic use.

Reader beware. Possibly the most important part of that article is "reports the Daily Mail".

To a British person, this speaks volumes. The Daily Mail is a meme. It represents, and caters to, all the small minded "it was better back then", bring back the birch/hanging/hanging's too good for 'em, little England, reactionary attitudes, types who tend to jump on these quotes and spin them out of any semblance of reality.

I see that the Mail is quoting The Times, itself not really an overly credible source of news (Murdoch press) which also has a reputation for a bit of head-in-the-sand NIMBYism.

I'm willing to bet Mitra has been misquoted somewhere.

Yes.... the Mail. They've not changed since their "Hurray for the Blackshirts!" days.

 

[splintercellsz]

I have a heavy want to learn how to properly write, and was learning cursive in my early school years (Kindergarten - some time around 2nd or 3rd grade), then the teaching of it stopped. The result is that I have a horrendous type of print, that I can only read on a good day, no matter how slow I take it, my words look like that of a child. I have been tempted to buy some of those calligraphy books, in order to re-teach myself to write properly.

I would have to blame computers for the issue. People don't rely on writing as much, as they type, or text. When it comes to it, a pencil does not feel as natural as a mouse, or number key.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We're back to Socrates again, really.

Well, the often-attributed quote about "the kids these days" actually comes from the early 20th Century, not from Socrates, but yes, the "back in my day" moralizing didn't start with the current crop of misfits.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I don't need to learn to spell because I have spellcheck on my computer

I don't need to learn math because I have a calculator

I don't need to learn to write because I have a keyboard

I don't need to learn facts because I can look them up on the internet.

Here is a CD of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Give me my PhD.

 

[fashion frank]

I don't need to learn to spell because I have spellcheck on my computer

I don't need to learn math because I have a calculator

I don't need to learn to write because I have a keyboard

I don't need to learn facts because I can look them up on the internet.

Here is a CD of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Give me my PhD.

Boy you sure have your finger on the pulse of what is wrong with things today.
They better just pray that the juice don't go out or their batteries don't die !

All the Best , Fashion Frank

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Thank gad I was born after the switch to metric/base ten currency, that's all I can say. That crazy old base seven (sometimes) British system is just a killer.

 

[scotrace]

Cursive is no longer taught in schools here. Neither are grammar or punctuation. The kids aren't tested on it, and teacher performance is based on how well kids do on the standardized testing, so they have no option but to teach narrowly directed curriculum aimed at what their students will be tested on, and not spend time teaching things that they aren't. We've bought ourselves a deeply flawed system. Teachers are not to blame, and all of those teachers with whom I speak are gravely concerned and quite resentful of the state ham-handing their classrooms.
Neither French or German are offered here anymore. Only Spanish.

 

[Stanley Doble]

^^You mean you don't know how many rods there are to the furlong, and how many furlongs there are to the league? Or how many firkins make a hogshead?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

And thank gad I don't! Talk about useless knowledge!

Scott, when I went to secondary school the teaching of English was just beginning its decline.The first rumblings of national League Tables for schools had begun, but the teachers didn't know what that would mean. We still did get basic grammar and punctuation, though. Try to find a person from my year at school - or any of the current crop of young journalists, from my reading - who knows the correct place to use e.g. or i.e., or the correct usage of colons and semi-colons, and you're in trouble.

My only beef with my schooling in English, really, is that we didn't read enough. I was lucky enough to have a mother who is a voracious reader and so there were always books around. I think people, and particularly kids, learn more from reading really good writers than they do from learning the rules.

My other issue is with the intensely parochial and insular nature of teaching in a colony (Scotland) at the time (mid 90s). Everything was absolutely focused on Scottish literature, Scottish history, Scottish geography. Which is good as far as it goes - it's very useful for the teachers to use subject matter that the kids have experience of to explain complex concepts - but by the higher end of secondary school, you really need to be learning more about the rest of existence. You know, Shakespeare, Dickens, Tennessee Williams, that kind of thing, which we didn't get a whiff of because they were not Scottish. It's a stereotype, I know, but my experience of midwestern undergraduates suggests that the problem is rife there, too.

 

[John in Covina]

Can can and still do use a fountain pen often. I like the idea that the youth are unable to write with pens and pencils in a legible fashion. Screw the little punks! They had so much handed to them on a silver platter. Let's just keep writing to ourselves....

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Great attitude.

But who'll staff the "retirement" homes?