Handwriting is literally becoming a lost art. I am a teacher, and I see every single day that people are unable to write by hand anymore. If they try, they are slow, illegible, unable to spell and they cannot coordinate their mind and hands. Thoughts do not flow smoothly from their mind to their hand. When I have to read work written by hand it is often illegible. And coming from someone who has been reading bad handwriting for more than 30 years as part of their job, that is saying something.
Because so much of our history is written by hand, it is really tragic that this is becoming a lost art, because people are now also becoming less able to READ handwriting.
I trained as a journalist so I have been able to touch-type and use shorthand since I was 18 years old. I also later taught CARR (Computer Aided Research and Reporting) where I taught journalists how to produce online newspapers. I taught typing for years and my typing speed is close to 100 words per minute. I used to work as a Novell network manager and hardware and software consultant. So I am not anti-technology by any means.
But I love writing by hand. It helps me to remember and to process information in a way that aids comprehension and retention. I write notes for my students by hand. I keep a paper planner. I find it calming and soothing and more reliable than technology regarding the way I work, where I do not always have access to the internet.
I read an interesting article last year where psychologists explain that writing things out by hand could make you smarter. There is also this one explaining why you should take notes by hand rather than on a laptop.
I work a lot with discussion and interaction in my classes and I find that students who jot notes down by hand do not interrupt the flow. But those who use laptops or tablets to write their notes somehow disturb the group dynamic. It seem intrusive somehow, like constantly texting during a conversation with someone else.
And beautiful handwriting is a work of art. When I was teaching in Ireland I used to love looking at The Book of Kells whenever I had a spare moment.
So I love looking at beautiful handwriting and I find it so sad that people do not use cursive anymore and that some schools are moving away from teaching good handwriting at all.
Find more here and here. The first link (Reddit) is where the photographs come from, and the second one is an article on Buzzfeed that inspired me to write this.
