As students spend less time learning handwriting, experts discuss its significance and the impact of digital communication on writing skills.
Students today are dedicating less time to learning handwriting, raising questions about the importance of this skill in education. Personal anecdotes highlight how handwritten letters served as meaningful connections in the past, contrasting with the current trend of digital communication.
Shawn Datchuk, a professor of special education at the University of Iowa and former director of the Iowa Reading Research Center, notes that the teaching of handwriting has diminished significantly. He states, "The vast majority of states have adopted a national set of academic standards that specifically focus on teaching handwriting during kindergarten and extends a little bit past the first grade." According to Datchuk, teachers report spending an average of just 10 minutes a week explicitly teaching handwriting in kindergarten classrooms.
The decline in handwriting instruction can be traced back to changes initiated around 2010, coinciding with the adoption of the Common Core academic standards across the United States. These standards encouraged a shift from handwriting to typing, with explicit guidance for students to transition to keyboarding shortly after first and second grades. This transition has led to cursive handwriting being largely omitted from many classrooms.
While cursive handwriting has seen a decline, recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest. Approximately 26 states in the U.S. have enacted legislation to reintroduce cursive handwriting into their state curricula. This renewed focus comes amid concerns over declining reading scores following the Covid-19 pandemic, with some educators suggesting that enhancing handwriting skills, particularly cursive, may help improve reading abilities.
Parents, educators, and guardians express a desire to reduce screen time, while some advocate for teaching cursive due to its unique appearance compared to print, which they argue is important for understanding historical documents like the Declaration of Independence.
Datchuk reflects on the educational trends regarding handwriting and the comparison between writing by hand and typing on screens. He suggests that, particularly for younger children learning to read, handwriting offers cognitive benefits. Writing by hand helps students memorize letter shapes and their corresponding sounds, which aids in reading comprehension. For older students, writing by hand can help minimize distractions that often accompany screen use, such as notifications from social media or emails.
However, Datchuk acknowledges that screens are an integral part of modern education and life, and the challenge lies in determining the appropriate balance of time spent on handwriting versus digital communication. With the advent of artificial intelligence, questions surrounding authorship and originality in writing have become more complex, further emphasizing the need for traditional writing skills.
The significance of handwriting extends beyond academic benefits; it carries a personal touch that resonates emotionally. Datchuk shares personal experiences of sending handwritten notes to family members, highlighting the unique value of handwritten communication.
He concludes that engaging in handwriting fosters deeper thinking and synthesis of information compared to typing, suggesting that the loss of this practice could have broader implications for personal expression and cognitive development.
