THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESERVING THE ART OF HANDWRITING
KATHERINE B. GOMEZ, Ma.Ed.
Paper and pen punctuate our learning more than we expect.
But this seems to be fading in the minds of students with the advent of 21st Century mode of education and evolution of technology. Homework, readings, news, chitchat, photos, research, music, videos— from the Web unwinds the spool of students’wired lives. Computers, PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones: the young will sooner be parted from the womb than from the electronic extensions of their identity.
So will the digital age banish the paper and pen of old to the trash-crammed pockets of last year’s knapsack?
Educators are giving back focus and importance of paper as this is where we learn how to write. Recent research has psychiatrists and neuroscientists asserting that writing by hand lets children read more quickly and communicate more expressively.
A study of children in grades two through five showed that those who composed text by hand produced more words and ideas than those typing on a keyboard.
In brain imaging, those with better handwriting showed greater activation of neural activity in areas associated with reading, writing and memory.
Other studies showed that, over tracing and printing letters, cursive writing has an edge, such as training self-control. This is food for thought for parents whose five- or six-year-olds are quicker than their elders to swipe and activate their personal tablets as soon as they are seated.
While the situation sorely tests the students’endurance, not to mention legibility, the exercise with paper and pencil prepares them for a principle proven in laboratories and classrooms: writing by hand helps a person process a lecture and reframe it in his or her words.
Perfecting the art of penmanship in childhood benefits the adult’s skills in comprehension, encoding, reflection and memory. Research proves that the relationship between handwriting and learning helps one think better.
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The author is Teacher III at San Nicolas Integrated School, City of San Fernando ( Pam p an ga)