Monday, July 27, 2009

Mourning the Death of Handwriting - TIME

The point is that "We've given up beauty for speed, artistry for efficiency. And yes, maybe we are a little bit lazy."

Mourning the Death of Handwriting - TIME:
Why? Technology is only part of the reason. A study published in the February issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology found that just 9% of American high school students use an in-class computer more than once a week. The cause of the decline in handwriting may lie not so much in computers as in standardized testing.

The Federal Government's landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, on the dismal state of public education, ushered in a new era of standardized assessment that has intensified since the passage in 2002 of the No Child Left Behind Act. "In schools today, they're teaching to the tests," says Tamara Thornton, a University of Buffalo professor and the author of a history of American handwriting. "If something isn't on a test, it's viewed as a luxury." Garcia agrees. "It's getting harder and harder to balance what's on the test with the rest of what children need to know," she says. "Reading is on there, but handwriting isn't, so it's not as important." In other words, schools don't care how a child holds her pencil as long as she can read.

12 comments:

  1. Very true. The year i left my school in New York they had introduced typing and provided computers for all students. In England they have introduced computers in most schools at GCSE level which is an exam you would take in America at Sophmore year in high school

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  2. yup. I think the best thing is if they taught everyone handwriting and typing. There should be plenty of time for both.

    A good friend who went to Reed College told me that Steve Jobs who also went to Reed dropped out of college after the first year. Then spent two years studying and practicing caligraphy before he went on to change the world.

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  3. Yes i know about that. He dropped out of Harvard to become one of the richest men in the world similar too Bill Gates and Woody Allen both of whom are also very successful. Woody Allen not so much.

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  4. Actually I think it was Gates who left Harvard and Jobs who left Reed. I thought it was really interesting that he spent two years becoming as good as he could in handwriting. It seems so far away from business, design and computers.

    Don't know about Woody Allen. I'll have to check wikipedia to see what I can find out.

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  5. Yup. You see to be right about Woody. Here's what Wikipedia says..

    After high school, he went to New York University (NYU), where he studied communication and film. He was never committed as a student, so he failed a film course, and was eventually expelled.[9] He later briefly attended City College of New York.

    So Steve Jobs, Woody Allen, Bill Gates. I think what ties them together is that they all spent alot of time being excellent at what they wanted to do. I can't believe that is was the money that made them do it. Otherwise they would have all gone into finance, since that's where the most of the money is.

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  6. Very very true. They were brave people that went on to do much better things. If you would like to see more dropouts both high school and college you will find this site very interesting. It was my source.

    http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/lists/dropouts.html

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  7. the site is very, very cool. So that means to me that one path to success to be brave and stay focused on being great at whatever.

    It should work in school and also work in whatever comes after school

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  8. Yes it should and probably does. At the same time most dropouts get very low class jobs or live with their parents until they find work or, in worst case scenarios, start begging.

    I have read that 90 percent of dropouts are worse off than they would be if they had continued high school

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  9. When you get a chance, see if you can find where you saw " that 90 percent of dropouts are worse off than they would be if they had continued high school"

    I'm not saying it's not true. But it sounds like a funny stat to me.

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  10. I did find it on quite a weird site to be honest. I cannot find the site as it was from yesterday and history was deleted. It was something like stat counter or zanystats.com i am sorry i just do not remember but come to think of it whatever i read must have been false.

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  11. That's the thing about evaluating evidence. As we all know, just because someone said it doesn't make it true. Consider how much bs we all hear every day. Not because people are trying to lie. Just because it's easy to say.

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  12. I just don't know which sites are reliable but i'll get the jist of it. And yes i completely agree with your points.

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