As technology has advanced and the Internet has grown to become a part of our everyday lives, there is now a much heavier reliance on typing. As such, some have argued that handwriting has become obsolete and should be removed from the school curriculum. Personally, I strongly disagree on both counts and feel that it is a skill that ought to be kept alive.
Despite the ubiquity of keyboards nowadays, handwriting still plays an important role. Above all, writing by hand helps the learning process. Most university students would know that when typing notes in a lecture, or reviewing, it can be extremely difficult to recall that information later, whereas writing by hand has the opposite effect. In fact, it has been proven that taking notes by hand and rewriting for review significantly boosts memory and retrieval of important information. In other words, if students relied only on typing, their learning comprehension would suffer. Clearly, although typing may often be more convenient, there is still definitely a place for the pen and paper.
Given its continued importance, it is vital, in my view, to continue teaching writing as a part of every child’s schooling. In addition to the cognitive benefits mentioned above, there is a physical aspect too as the simple act of holding and manipulating a pencil helps hone a child’s fine motor skills. If they learned to write only on the computer, they would take much longer to develop this dexterity. Another point to consider is the link between identity and handwriting. Each person’s signature and style is unique and should be considered a valuable asset. The typed word, in contrast, lacks any personal flair.
In conclusion, typing is certainly not going to disappear. However, I feel that teaching and nurturing children’s handwriting skills will benefit them in the long run and should continue.