...to think learning to write by hand will soon not be a priority?

[WalkingOnTheCracks]

My teenage daughter wrote a letter yesterday. I mean, on paper, to go in an envelope.

It occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time I saw her use a pen.

It then occurred to me that I couldn't remember the last time I used a pen. And I'm a writer.

Birthday cards - that's about it.

So, how long will it be before handwriting becomes a non-core subject in schools, like art or woodwork?

To put it another way, for what reason will the ability to write by hand be vital to prospering in the world?

Signature? No, there are much more reliable ways of identifying a person, and they're already becoming the norm.

Work? I can't think of many jobs in which anything vital is communicated in handwriting. Teachers marking homework, possibly, but you can see how that might become obsolete. Writing on whiteboards in meetings? Yeah, there's still a lot of that. And even my doctor prints out prescriptions. There are few jobs for which the ability to write by hand is essential.

Just the sheer pleasure of doing it? Yep, possibly. But in that case handwriting will become like turning wood or cultivating bonsais - something that you might learn to do because you're interested, but unlikely to be a priority in the curriculum.

For formal or significant things - love letters, expressions of condolence? Well, possibly, but that's a remnant of a time when writing a letter was an important gesture. I'm not sure that it'll have the same significance for my grandchildren, because they'll have seen so few handwritten documents that it'll seem archaic rather than important.

One might say, 'But what if all the computers in the world crashed? People would still need to communicate in writing." And that's true, but it wouldn't be reason enough to spend money on teaching people to do it. Just as, in the event of all the cars grinding to a halt, people would still need to get around - but we haven't spent money on making sure everyone can ride a horse. We don't invest in teaching things that the vast majority of people are unlikely to have to do.

So, to be clear here, I'm not suggesting that handwriting should be dropped from the curriculum tomorrow. I'm asking what the justification will be for keeping it on the curriculum in a few decades from now.

YABU - there will always be practical, compelling reasons for teaching people to write by hand, and here they are...

YANBU - handwriting is probably going the way of archery or sewing. Some people will learn to do it, but most people won't ever need to, so it won't be a core subject in schools.

Writing is quicker and cheaper. Of course it will.still be taught. Yabu.

Cheaper? How? It doesn't use any resources.
Doubt it's quicker either.

Mwws article this morning about Mountain Rescue warning walkers not to rely solely on technology...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-61009232

Technology isn't infallible.

Nope its not going any where in schools. Schools can’t afford to keep a set of laptops plus spares just for exams, plus one for each child and spares for when they’re not charged or broken or forgotten. Lots of teachers are buying basic equipment like pens and paper so unless the government are planning to invest in education anytime soon (let’s face it Tories won’t) writing is going to be around for a ling time.

YANBU handwriting is an equivalent of crochet now. A redundant skill.

YABU. I really don't think that will happen. Even if there is less writing by hand in secondary school, primary schools will continue to do plenty of it. It's widely recognised that it's not good for young children to be constantly using screens, and writing is good for motor skills etc, so I very much doubt they'll be ditching the pen and paper, regardless of how much those writing skills will be used in adulthood.

Plus I'm pretty sure there has been a resurgence in the popularity of handwritten diaries and journals, nice stationery and notebooks, fountain pens etc.

Good quality handwriting I agree.

I’m a nurse and my notes are written but I can see that going digital eventually
Using a computer was helpful for me due to my dyslexia as my ideas translated better via computer than the age it took me to write however I did practise and now write legibly due to work as my notes are legal documents so I do need to take care. Hard sometimes at the end of a very tiring 13 hour shift.

It might become less important but I struggle to imagine a world where we aren’t actively taught how to write.

Neat, visually pleasing writing will be come a larger art form maybe, like calligraphy but I think learning how to form letters and words is an important part of embedding a knowledge of reading and understanding how sentences are formed. I don’t know the mechanisms of it but I find that I retain information noticeably better if I’ve written it by hand over typing or reading.

Maybe that will change with technology but I’m not convinced.

Maybe we won't write on paper in the same way but as a primary teacher, I can't currently see how we'd do away with handwriting in the classroom. Mark-making by the youngest children is an important development stage by which they begin to associate their marks with communicating meaning, making notes at secondary school is harder to do if typed, maths in general is easier for many people when they can use the page as they wish, doodling isn't easy on computer nor is the creation of mindmaps or revision flashcards. The muscle memory of writing words supports the spelling of them for lots of people too - that would be lost if we only ever typed.

I don’t think writing by hand will be taken away from the curriculum. But I can see the focus on neat, joined handwriting disappearing from the year 6 standards at some point in the future. Always thought that was a pointless aim.

For me teaching writing is a matter of maintaining freedom to express ideas away from the domination of technology. Also away from the power requirements of technology. Writing is something that’s accessible with very few tools, easily obtainable, with low environmental and economic costs. It’s why literacy became and remains is so widespread.

There’s also the problem of who controls the content of the information found via computers and how much freedom people really have to overturn it. In an age of deep fakes I can actually see a return to paper rather than ever more resources invested in a cryptographical arms race. At any rate the internet will have to evolve in some way to combat that and I am not sure how.

Writing is also a good way of supporting fine motor skills. Apparently manual dexterity is falling and this is a cause for concern in some sectors.

You raise an interesting question op!

SE13mummy, good point, can we teach reading without writing?

Personally I think you need to learn how to write before you can learn how to type. It’s also a key part of learning to read. Reading and writing don’t exist in isolation from one another.

It’s the same with maths. Even if you only ever work things out with a calculator, understanding the principles of mental arithmetic is still part of the learning process.

Writing helps develop neural pathways in the brain and fine motor skills in youngsters. I wouldn't "write it off" just yet see what I did there

Sure, you don't write much. I write out shopping lists, To Do lists, on our chalkboard meal planner, and also a heck of a lot of Greek, because I'm learning that language. I've filled three large pads with sentences and their English translations. I could type it out I suppose, but I don't think I would learn it as effectively than I do trying to write a Greek Z for example...

I used to write letters a lot but these days I do rely on WA more for that, especially to my friend in Italy. But I send her cards with messages written in, and I love getting things from her with her writing in. It feels more special now. Writing is so unique and individual, we should cherish it rather than trying to bin it off.

I work in the civil service I write every day pages and pages of notes I use pens till they run out of ink such a strange thought that writing would not be taught anymore, of course we need it

DS is part of a pilot scheme in his (secondary, Scottish) school to gradually get rid of jotters where possible. All students in his year have been provided with laptops for school use only. It is definitely of benefit to him, as he has ASN and was reluctant to "stick out" too much by using a laptop before. He finds it easier to keep up when he can type rather than pen and paper.

I'm sure handwriting will still be taught in primary school, it's always going to be a hugely important skill - but I can see it being used less as children go into secondary.

@SauceGirl

Cheaper? How? It doesn't use any resources. Doubt it's quicker either.

What do you mean? Writing is much quicker and cheaper than providing everyone with the technology to type.

As a KS1 teacher, we do written work-either on paper, in books, on white books etc-done in nearly every lesson.

We have 15 laptops for the whole school! I can’t imagine being in a situation when we stop writing in schools.

Going over to IT has been great for two of my children, one dyslexic and the other with learning difficulties. The first one still has to write reports, scan them to share with families and other professionals whose systems aren't linked. While the Tory's only give contracts to their friends and buy computer systems not fit for purpose.
My other DDs work on iPads within different hospitals. There's days were they still have to write things down.
I doubt that we can guarantee that everyone can afford the needed tech. Leaving post it notes, having a whiteboard works for many busy families.

I understand your point that we generally write less than we use to, but I still do work/university notes by hand (as do the vast majority of my colleagues/classmates). Also, my kids are learning to write in cursive in school, like this, so if anything, for us at least, handwriting is being focused on more than when I was in school.

"While the Tory's only give contracts to their friends and buy computer systems not fit for purpose, we will always need handwriting.

I wish they would drop the cursive writing in schools. Its way harder for kids to learn and harder to read. Nobody write in cursive as an adult, and I can't see ANY benefit to it.
I think learning to write is useful and will always be on the curriculum, but learning to write in a particular outdated script should be dropped right now.

I have to say, I write in cursive, but the only other people I know who do that are my Granny and her friends, so you probably have a point!

Does there have to be emphasis on one or the other? Some kids don't have the dexterity for it at the age cursive is expected. Cursive needs to be optional. Typing also brilliant for certain people and their needs, as mentioned above, but also mentioned above is resourcing... I don't believe education should be a free-for-all but it's really limited as it stands now. Not schools' fault. I'm somewhat middle of the road in terms of views on education as a whole. Not too rigid, not utterly feral. Space to choose. Guidance (and insistence, at times) where required, but it's possible to do that brilliantly or terribly. Spoken as a homeschool parent whose kid was previously in school, and had a real mixed experience - wonderful at the start, because of one amazing teacher and some brilliant TAs, and despite the frank idiocy of others. But the system as a whole knocked him sideways in the end. A lot of questions of "phonics vs none" or "handwriting or typing" are falsely binary, in my vague and not quite fully caffeinated yet opinion.

My son's high school do the majority of their work on paper except computer studies and some homework which uses mymaths etc. So no I don't see an end to it.