Will Computers Make Handwriting Obsolete?

Laugh if you want, but I am already someone who has fallen victum to this. My handwriting is so poor these days that I could duplicate my style with a pen shoved firmly in my nose, then ‘take to the writing’.

I recently came across an article that reported that some schools have stopped teaching cursive writing, at least as a mandatory part of the curriculum (see http://essayinfo.com/articles/a11.php). With both of my kids grown up and out of school, it never occurred to me that students are no longer spending long hours practicing their handwriting (I still remember my son coming home from elementary school in dismay that his first and last name together consisted of 20 letters – which he had to write twenty times for homework. “Mom, why didn’t you name me Joe Smith?” he asked).

Of course, kids now start using computers in kindergarten (if not before) and the focus on developing handwriting skills is being replaced with an emphasis on developing typing skills. There are lots of good reasons for this; the average adult of the future will probably use a keyboard a lot more than he’ll sit down with a pencil and paper. Look at how completely computers have already taken over tasks that used to require handwriting. [Read the rest]