Slashdot Mirror
Finland Dumps Handwriting In Favor of Typing
mikejuk writes It seems incredible that in the 21st century schools are still teaching children to scratch marks on paper. Well in Finland they are taking a step in the direction of the future by giving up teaching handwriting. The Savon Sanomat newspaper reports that from autumn 2016 cursive handwriting will no longer be a compulsory part of the school curriculum. Instead the schools will teach keyboard skills and 'texting'. The idea of teaching proper keyboard skills to children is unquestionably a great idea, the idea of texting is a little more dubious and many will mourn the loss of a traditional skill like cursive writing. So what about a world where cursive writing is forgotten? What do you do when your computer is dead and you need to leave a note? The death of cursive script probably isn't the death of handwriting but the death of doing it quickly and with style. Some no doubt will want to master it just for the sake of it — like driving a stick shift. I know some U.S. schools have done the same; how proficient should kids be with cursive?
who needs napkins to do calculations when you have slide rules?
Well, seeing as there are people here who can't read (you), what does the writing matter?
To be clear - they're only dropping the part of long division that is currently performed in cursive.
Damn straight. Literacy either. I can't think of a single time in my life where I would've literally died if I couldn't read. Chuck it; useless. All the times that it would've helped, I either had someone else there to tell me what I needed, or I had a device with text-to-speech functionality.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.