When I was growing up, I remember having a small red and
white GE Show n Tell “television” on which you could view color slides with a
record player on the top which played
accompanying (or independently purchased) 45s. The soundtrack to
“Grease” and an old Eddie Rabbit album with “Rainy Night” were my earliest
memories of that technology. The red plastic ViewMaster 3Ds came along shorty thereafter with stories on a wheel of slides that instantly became one of the great advancements that made my childhood so amazing. I still remember my first
Walkman and how amazed I was (we all were) that it was practically the same
size as the cassette tape itself! Where did the technology fit!???
My daughter is growing up in an age where she has: three
ipads to choose from when she goes potty, a library of videos on any car ride
or flight and the ability to purchase and download apps on my wife’s iphone by
age 2 ½. I see it as an amazing leap and an educational advantage… but these
tools are also seen as over-indulgences and the beginnings of a devolution by others. I’ve heard the arguments against children having ipads that range from
“…they serve as a mindless form entertainment that promote inactivity and
laziness” to “…an expensive gateway to anti-social behavior and pornography
addiction” Call me crazy, but I think
the same could be said for books and cable television if not properly
supervised.
My 3 yr old daughter plays math games and word puzzles with
her favorite Disney characters on her ipad and yes… also does stream some of
her favorite Sprout and Disney Jr. shows… but only the ones we approve of.
Shows with solid ethical content and educational undertones (ie; no shouting,
kicking and insults dressed in humor from Spongebob Squarepants.) She even
enjoys several music and painting programs…so much so that I’ve noticed that
she prefers them to actually coloring with traditional Crayola crayons and
markers. Which is where my concern came from.
I recognize the value of equipping children with the tools
that tomorrow’s technology will be based on. I recognize the necessity of a fundamental
proficiency in modern technology in order to accomplish anything from operating
whatever comes after the Blue Ray player to…open heart surgery. But I worry about the delayed and possibly postponed
learning of handwriting and the development of the manual
dexterity required to hold a pencil. Everything
she does seems to revolve around the sliding of a finger or opening and closing
three or four fingers at once to zoom, shrink, pan and close.
A November 2013 post on Good.is pointed out: “Not so
fast with throwing handwriting in the dustbin, though. It turns out that
cursive-type writing helps make CAPTCHAS—that series of letters you have to
decipher to prove you're not an automated bot trying to buy online concert
tickets—tougher for machines to read. If kids don't learn how to read cursive,
they're going to have a tough time reading a CAPTCHA.
As TechCrunch aptly points out, researchers at Indiana University
have found that children who learn and practice handwriting show brain activity
that's similar to adults. "Typing does not do the same thing," says
IU professor Karin Harman James. And, for all those conspiracy theorists out
there, says TechCrunch, keep in mind that the Constitution is written in
cursive. If Americans stop being able to read it, what will happen to the
nation?”
I’m sure my grandparents had similar concerns when
remote control televisions were first introduced but it moved me enough to seek
the advice of the folks who own and operate my daughter’s Montessori
School. (Especially after buying a
colored pencil set for her when she turned three and she told us: “…I’m not old
enough to use these to trace shapes at school yet”). Her teachers informed us
that, despite my concern, Catherine was on-track and that grasping a pencil
well enough to trace simple shapes usually occurs around the age of 3 ½ - 4
years of age. I guess the overriding concern for my wife and me stemmed from so
many of our childhood memories being built around crayons and the multitude of
colors…not to mention the boxes they came in. Catherine seems so disinterested in them now that she has such vibrant art apps that not only allow her to choose the color with which to create, but the thickness and material of the virtual marker, paintbrush or stamp as well.
I have begun wondering if the tablets could actually be contributing to the obsolescence
of handwriting all-together and perhaps, with my newfound Montessorial understanding of the
connections between tangible physical comprehension and conceptual learning, something even greater. Like the "Hip-Bone" song...("...and the writing bone's connected to the ---???").
I began monitoring Catherine’s activity on her tablet more
closely and realized that although her continued interest in apps like Dora’s Skywriter, Super Why’s Wands Up
Writing and Lickety Letter Hunt, Montessorium’s Intro to Letters and Alpha Writer,etc.. supported her development
of writing skills, she might benefit by our supplementing this kind of learning
with an increased frequency of the more “manual” exercises she loves like
watercolor, drawing and shopping list writing. Even her Mommy’s highly specialized field
of pediatric surgery, which requires an incredible amount of manual dexterity
and “feel”, has incorporated robotics into the mix. Although the use of robotics has been well-documented as advantageous for many reasons, I
can’t help but call to mind the countless stories of her teaching residents how
to feel for anatomy or the art of sewing a newborn’s abdominal wall closed which she
has likened to “…sewing wet tissue together”.
Although Smithsonian.com
ran an article in March of 2013 siting: A survey
in the US in 1960 found that the decision to teach cursive in elementary
schools was “based mainly on tradition and wide usage, not on research
findings.” One school director said that public expectancy and teachers’
training were the main reasons, and that “we doubt that there is any
significant advantage in cursive writing.” According to Wallace, nothing has
changed: “The reasons to reject cursive handwriting as a formal part of the
curriculum far outweigh the reasons to keep it.” (Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/03/is-cursive-handwriting-going-extinct/#ixzz2Zck8Drsz)...
we are animals that are part of a physical world. Technology’s
next great leap is likely to be a return to the “physical” by re-creation
through tactile feedback and response. Nothing will surpass the level of skill
in and understanding of our world based in a physical learning and manipulation of
things. I would not be surprised to see that manual dexterity and the ability
to write code as the two most highly prized skill-sets in the next decade.
Bill
Graves of the Oregonian reported: “Students today "are not doing this kind of craftsmanship
activity that they used to do on a daily basis," he says.
They
also may be losing an edge in their learning. Researchers using magnetic
resonance imaging to study brain activity say handwriting, whether print or
cursive, engages more of the brain in learning and forming ideas.”
With that in mind, I went, with a mission, to find a thinner ipad friendly stylus, scented crayons, sparkly pens that light up...anything to encourage more drawing and/or writing on paper. To my surprise (and delight) I stumbled on a local toy store (Kidtopia) that not only sells everything you've ever seen in any toy catalog, but has developmental and educational games I've never even heard of. One in particular being "A to Z Magnatab" by kidO (see photos below) boards with ball bearings that rise to the surface when you trace the shape of a printed or cursive letter with a magnetized pen. I also found: scented pencils & crayons, pens that make animal sounds and light-up when you write with them and even a fishing game for the tub that requires reeling in the "fish" after you hook one.
With the help of exceptional educators, progressive toy manufacturers and mindful parents, handwriting just might survive... and not end up like hieroglyphics.
