Schools are not putting as much emphasis on handwriting as they used to, given the growing use of electronic devices, and that can be a good thing in some ways. (As a teacher, I was bored witless checking penmanship workbooks.)
But guess what. The Law of Unintended Consequences is rearing its head.
Maria Konnikova writes at the NY Times, “Psychologists and neuroscientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting a relic of the past. New evidence suggests that the links between handwriting and broader educational development run deep.
“Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters — but how. …
“A 2012 study [published in Trends in Neuroscience and Education] led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, lent support to that view. Children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer. They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again. …
“When children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write … By contrast, children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effect. ” More here.
Konnikova reports that even doubters of the study’s significance wonder if the act of writing by hand makes you think more.
Photo: Karin James
Samples of handwriting by young children.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I’m a believer. 😉
If my father had typed everything he wrote, how would his future bride’s father have been able to assess his character by hiring a handwriting analyst? (I never heard what my grandfather learned. Or what he proposed to do if he didn’t like what the analyst told him.)
Do you write short stories? This one is begging to be written.
LOL. Haven’t tried one in years, but maybe I should think about it.
Fascinating–makes perfect sense to me.
The other thing is, handwriting is as personal as a fingerprint; no two people have styles that are completely identical. That feels important to me.
So much of our learning is linked to muscle movements — fingers and hands and arms when writing with a pen or pencil, lips and tongue and throat and larynx when we are speaking/singing. Typing onto a computer may not stimulate the same chains of muscles as writing with a pen or pencil? And typing certainly neutralizes the individuality of our personal handwriting… I think the French are still very involved with graphology (is that the correct word?) to explore/analyze people’s handwriting. Hurrah for the folks who haven’t entirely surrendered their old-fashioned ways/habits/practices!
As an editor by day, I have become very much a computer-dependent writer, but there are so many things for which typing is completely wrong. Sympathy cards come to mind.
Viewpoints sent to the NY Times, June 9, 2014
Re “What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades” (June EDUCATION
TO THE EDITOR:
I am encouraged to see attention being paid to the importance of teaching handwriting in elementary schools. As the article points out, learning handwriting, and in particular cursive writing, helps the learning process overall.
Handwriting is an avenue for individual expression, a kinesthetic connection between our ideas and our movement on the page that is not duplicated by typing. This individuality is the basis of our signature being our bond on contracts and other documents. Handwriting is our personal stamp, as is the way we talk, walk and gesture, and should be allowed to develop and flourish in children.
No one is suggesting that learning to play the piano is impractical now that we have digital music. Expressing ourselves by playing an instrument is analogous to the way we express ourselves in the way we draw and write. It goes to the heart of who we are, our personalities and our unique sense of self.
Patricia Siegel
Great Neck, N.Y.
The writer is president of the American Society of Professional Graphologists.
TO THE EDITOR:
As a rare book and manuscript librarian, I feel compelled to add that as knowledge of cursive fades, so too will our ability to do historical research. I direct a library with over three miles of literary archives containing letters and manuscripts by Mark Twain, Carl Sandburg, Marcel Proust, Gwendolyn Brooks and H.G. Wells, among other luminaries. How will new generations of non-cursive readers make heads or tails of these documents — let alone their own parents’ love letters? By not teaching cursive, we are excluding upcoming generations from the ability to do primary research or interact with the past.
To counteract this trend, our library will be filled with 8- to 11-year-olds this summer at our newly established “Camp Cursive.” It’s a matter of life and death to libraries like mine, and we’re doing something about it.
Valerie Hotchkiss
Urbana, Ill.
The writer is director of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.