In defense of two old-fashioned skills that still matter.

Every year I notice small changes that are difficult to tell over the course of one school year, but over several, start to become trends. Going back to a lower-elementary classroom for the first time in several years,

I am sad-surprised at overwhelming lack of basic competency at two concrete skills:

a) The inability of many students to write even a short paragraph.

I don’t mean from a content standpoint (spelling, syntax, complete idea, etc.). I mean from a physical skill standpoint: they get tired. Physically tired from writing small amounts. So…in terms of what constitutes athleticism - this connection is just occurring to me now 😊 - there are many students who do not have the physical stamina to simply write. Not talking cursive. Just writing, period.

b) The inability of many students, even into Grade 4, to type.

I am not saying this to warn anyone to suddenly make sure their child is “not behind” in typing. Not at all.

But typing/keyboarding is not a skill that is consistently or formally taught en masse, in my observations.

In many cases, I am spending 5-10 minutes just helping students get LOGGED in with user names and passwords, because it can be so hard to find letters or numbers on a keyboard. That is just getting kids to the starting point. It’s an enormously inefficient use of time.

This becomes increasingly problematic in looking a very short ways down the road (from grades 3-4) to writing longer-form papers and assignments, to say nothing of inputting information of any kind of content.

The relationship between these two is fascinating and disturbing: handwriting and typing. If students are not able to use either effectively at a baseline level, their options for being able to PRODUCE information, to INPUT information, becomes severely limited.

It might be easy for some to point to the role of technology and how it will help many disparate learning styles. Okay, maybe. I’m not a (video) gamer, so my understanding of the role many input devices might play formatively and developmentally is quite limited. That being said…

…I don't see a world in which being able to only use gestures, dictation, or visual-video forms to communicate ideas and stories will be better from a progress standpoint.

Ideas and stories are still conveyed primarily through words, regardless of what the “we’re in a visual world” conventional wisdom mantra thumped into us might say.

Bottom line: I believe it is as important as it’s ever been for kids to learn the fundamentals of (first) writing by hand and (second) keyboarding/typing.

At some point, there may be an input device, via brain to physical actualization, that makes us feel like these skills are archaic. Maybe.

But even if, even IF we reach that point, I will still have two or three arguments to make:

1) On-hand access to the totality of the world’s knowledge has not made kids, students, or anyone smarter.

There’s just more of it, and it means wisdom has decreased, people are overwhelmed and oversaturated, and there is less and less baseline information in the form of “knowledge” that people agree on. Going through the steps of learning a fundamental skill, even if there’s something (possibly) better off on the horizon, is not going to be to any child’s detriment.

2) From a physical standpoint, going through the process of writing is valuable.

What a strange sentence to write: writing as an athletic and physical exercise. That’s a good thing, right? One of the big battles parents end up with now is: how do I get my children outside and physically moving? Perhaps next decade’s battle is: Can't get our children outside, so how at least do we get our children exercising via handwriting? The thought is painfully hilarious and, I fear, relevant and not completely ludicrous.

3) Writing, and later, typing slows you down.

This is not a bad thing. Outputting everything quickly is not, is not, is not in and of itself a good thing. Just like doing everything quickly in the name of efficiency is not necessarily the greatest good.

There are many, many, many, many things our children would not have learned if we had not taken the inefficient route of letting them be involved, engaged, making mistakes, learning the ropes, figuring things out, asking questions, etc. That is learning, at every age, and honestly, the word “efficiency” means very little to me at this point in life. It may again.

But far more important to me is effectiveness.

In my opinion, learning baseline skills is a progressive and thoughtful choice to make in a world that is consumed with ideas of how technology can make our lives more efficient.

Learn to write!
Learn to type!
I don’t think most people will come to a point in life and think: man, I wish I had never learned those skills. :)