Some people argue that old-fashioned handwriting no longer needs to be learnt in schools with the rise of digital habits. Although there are potential advantages, I disagree with this view.
Since the beginning of their life, students nowadays have been exposed to a digital lifestyle. Not apart from that, typing on a device instead of writing by hand has some benefits. Firstly, it is more handy because children don’t need to bring one book each for different subjects. Moreover, they can multitask with browsing on the internet while jotting down notes. Secondly, they will save so much time to take notes and make any changes. Digital note apps come with convenience features, such as cut, copy, and paste, making the process easier. Thirdly, with the typing recorded as digital texts, students are able to find specific topics by searching the keywords on their tablet with a shortcut.
However, not teaching students how to write by hand has some disadvantages. The first one is that people may know nothing about handwriting in the future. Research found that after some decades of becoming a communication tool, Gen Z will be the first generation to lose the ability to write. Additionally, they could not write proper long sentences due to a short span of focus. Fast-paced content that children consume may affect their focus on writing a structural paragraph. Lastly, they will think more slowly owing to growing up with not enough motoric stimulation.
To sum up, while it brings benefits for educational purposes, writing traditionally is still necessary to stimulate children’s growth and continue the human race’s way of communication.