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>"Handwriting instruction had already been declining as laptops and tablets and lessons in “keyboarding” assumed an ever more prominent place in the classroom"

>"Handwriting instruction had already been declining as laptops and tablets and lessons in “keyboarding” assumed an ever more prominent place in the classroom" While I think you can debate the particular merits of cursive the underlying fine motor skills that are developed are important in many situations. Wholesale replacing handwriting with keyboards or even voice is in my opinion a bad idea. I've been teaching people how to solder at a local makerspace and there's a big increase of "two left hands" young people from my experience. Younger generations just don't do a lot of mechanical work any more. Same with the decline in swimming. Tech should augment, not replace or even degrade physical abilities.

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XorNot 4y ago
So how's your blacksmithing these days? After all, if you can't repair a plow then what will you do?
- jeltz 4y ago
  Or your flint knapping? Edit: I think there are better and more relevant ways to teach kids fine motor skills than teaching them an outdated and useless script. What about just teaching them block letters, calligraphy or drawing?
- Barrin92 4y ago
  I'm not entirely sure how the sarcasm is warranted given 1. I made clear that rather than the particular task, what is important is the development of skills, secondly the ability to perform basic repairs is also a rapidly declining but important skill, and thirdly blacksmithing is actually still a career.
  - andrew_ 4y ago
    it wasn't warranted IMO. Topics on HN which incite feelings of insecurity, or which drag up strong negative emotions, tend to result in a lot of brash negative replies and a lot of sarcasm anymore. This topic seems to be striking a nerve with a lot of folks who struggled with the teaching/skill at an early age.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - XorNot 4y ago
    You know how to solder so you get all judgy about people, who I note are coming to you to learn how to do it, when they can't immediately solder well. But then you don't worry at all about not knowing basic blacksmithing, to as you would say "perform basic repairs". That's because knowing how to solder is about as relevant as blacksmithing. It's a neat trick. It's handy if you do know it. It has absolutely no real relevance, or even substantial economic utility, to the vast majority of people in modern society. And you've apparently got a wholly unearned superiority complex about "the youth of today". How original.[1] [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916
dageshi 4y ago
Unless you keep regularly using them those fine motor skills will atrophy from lack of use. And barely anybody will use it outside of the real world. All this does is make kids exasperated with their education because they're being taught something they know is outdated and has no real utility in the real world.

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XorNot 4y ago

So how's your blacksmithing these days? After all, if you can't repair a plow then what will you do?

jeltz 4y ago
Or your flint knapping? Edit: I think there are better and more relevant ways to teach kids fine motor skills than teaching them an outdated and useless script. What about just teaching them block letters, calligraphy or drawing?
Barrin92 4y ago
I'm not entirely sure how the sarcasm is warranted given 1. I made clear that rather than the particular task, what is important is the development of skills, secondly the ability to perform basic repairs is also a rapidly declining but important skill, and thirdly blacksmithing is actually still a career.
- andrew_ 4y ago
  it wasn't warranted IMO. Topics on HN which incite feelings of insecurity, or which drag up strong negative emotions, tend to result in a lot of brash negative replies and a lot of sarcasm anymore. This topic seems to be striking a nerve with a lot of folks who struggled with the teaching/skill at an early age.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- XorNot 4y ago
  You know how to solder so you get all judgy about people, who I note are coming to you to learn how to do it, when they can't immediately solder well. But then you don't worry at all about not knowing basic blacksmithing, to as you would say "perform basic repairs". That's because knowing how to solder is about as relevant as blacksmithing. It's a neat trick. It's handy if you do know it. It has absolutely no real relevance, or even substantial economic utility, to the vast majority of people in modern society. And you've apparently got a wholly unearned superiority complex about "the youth of today". How original.[1] [1] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916

dageshi 4y ago

Unless you keep regularly using them those fine motor skills will atrophy from lack of use. And barely anybody will use it outside of the real world. All this does is make kids exasperated with their education because they're being taught something they know is outdated and has no real utility in the real world.