Some people say that in our modern age it is unnecessary to teach children about the skills of handwriting. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Question

It is argued that young children do not need to learn handwriting in this digital age. I strongly disagree with this as I believe handwriting will continue to be important in a foreseeable future.

On the one hand, with the accelerating advancement of technology, good penmanship may arguably be undermined in the future. Firstly, electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones provide children with a mean to record information. Plus, keyboarding proves to be faster than note-taking. Secondly, the majority of documents today are prepared by word-processing software, and information can be stored more securely online. This may, as a result, lead to the increased preferences for typing rather than writing on papers. Therefore, children might not need legible writing anymore in a near future.

On the other hand, I would argue that good cursive writing will remain important for children despite current technology development. First of all, the legibility of handwriting could be related to reading and spelling ability. For example, if children can produce readable writing, they will make sense of letters quickly, making them become good readers when they grow up. Additionally, handwritten letters would not be replaced by emails as they provoke deeper emotions from receivers. Finally, education institutions still use written examination as a form of assessment, and hence the ability of producing excellent penmanship undoubtedly helps children to achieve high grades.

In conclusion, while the advent of some electronic devices poses a threat to the future of handwriting, I am convinced that it is still crucial that children are taught how to write legibly.