[news] A pen? What the hell is that?

[MK-2]

BBC News - Indiana latest US state to drop handwriting requirement

 

To me it just seems silly. Yes I know that keyboard skills are required more and more, especially in the workplace, but is that what kids will do now, learn things specific to jobs? In that case drop maths if the kid wants to be a footballer, drop science if she wants to be a writer.

 

I feel we are losing a lot of the old arts as it were. Being able to paint or draw something you see (instead of photoshop it or chop it up and drop it in formaldehyde), and now writing with a pen/pencil/crayon/blood!

 

I had to laugh at one of the comments saying "to those who moan we are losing something, look at the quill." One hand held device for writing improved with a more efficient one, whereas the computer/typewriter doesn't improve on the pen, it is totally different and replaces it.

 

What concerns me more is how are mental asylums going to operate? I mean patients might want to write obscene things on the wall in their own faeces....now what? Do we need to provide them with a laptop and printer so they can just type up the message and blu-tak it to the wall?

 

It reminds me of a tweet I saw a few days ago along the lines of:

"Kids nowadays: when you hear the record needle scratch sound in movies, do you even know what the hell that is"

[gl3nnym]

At least typing, printing and blu-tacking is a lot more hygienic than faecal messages. Much easier to clean off too! They could even print off in brown and download a poo type font!

[jamesb]

But the article actually says they're dropping the requirement for cursive handwriting, not for handwriting in general.

 

When's the last time anyone here wrote anything in cursive rather than print? I know that when they tried to drill it into me at school I always found it annoying, difficult to read, and a complete waste of time. The moment I got out of school I switched back to printed handwriting and finally learned that I could both write quickly, and legibly.

[Guest Guest]

Didn't even know what cursive handwriting was, it would seem it's just normal joined up handwriting. TBH I only know one person who doesn't write like that, my mum. That's how we were all taught how to write when I was at school.

 

TBF it's probably a good thing. Most of the teachers cursive handwriting is illegible and normally takes 2 or 3 "translations" when one of the office staff have to type it up.

[localzuk]

I don't write 'joined up'. I blame my primary school teachers for this to be honest - they focussed most effort on the girls for handwriting, so all the boys who came out of that school had terrible handwriting.

 

So now, simply to be able to read it again, I avoid joining it up.

 

Where possible everything is typed.

 

I am leaning towards supporting this decision too - handwriting is on the way out and being replaced by type. Sure, there are some professions that use handwriting but they are numbering less as time goes on.

[MK-2]

I am leaning towards supporting this decision too - handwriting is on the way out and being replaced by type. Sure, there are some professions that use handwriting but they are numbering less as time goes on.

 

I don't feel this should be based purely on jobs (despite me commenting on that). Yes, some jobs require typing over handwriting, but then does that mean we should stop teaching kids maths, because lets face it, if you type, you can use a calculator so just use that, why learn to work it out yourself if your phone can do it for you?

 

Now my handwriting is terrible, and my maths isn't far off, but despite that I still use both daily without the need of computers.

 

The problem is that it won't be far off kids not knowing how to use a pen and paper, and not knowing proper spelling because spellcheck does all that.

Give it ten years and everything will be text talk. You'll see a job advert that says "LOL geek needed b4 july, aply on fbook or @work"

[LeightonJames]

If my teachers at school saw how i write now they would have a fit!

 

My handwriting consists of ALL uppercase characters but of different sizes to denote the capitalization of words.

 

EDIT - If we descend in to a world of text talk i am going to kill myself!