Thank you for “writing” this. My son, too, has trouble with his handwriting although he is a creative thinker and interesting storyteller. Too often he’s graded on the neatness of his handwriting and not on the strength of his ideas. Although we may always need or want handwriting to sign things or jot down notes, increasingly there will be cheap and available technology that will allow people to make notes by talking into devices–no need to run to a computer. Indeed many cell phones come with this ability and iPods and other mp3 devices do as well. We need to think beyond the way we’ve always done things and work on ways to make it possible for people who want or need to get words from their heads to the screen or page to do so.

And just a comment about the study showing that handwriting is correlated to better grades. It could also be teacher bias. I know from experience that many teachers believe that students who are neater are smarter. Not necessarily true.

Thank you for “writing” this. My son, too, has trouble with his handwriting although he is a creative thinker and interesting storyteller. Too often he’s graded on the neatness of his handwriting and not on the strength of his ideas. Although we may always need or want handwriting to sign things or jot down notes, increasingly there will be cheap and available technology that will allow people to make notes by talking into devices–no need to run to a computer. Indeed many cell phones come with this ability and iPods and other mp3 devices do as well. We need to think beyond the way we’ve always done things and work on ways to make it possible for people who want or need to get words from their heads to the screen or page to do so.

And just a comment about the study showing that handwriting is correlated to better grades. It could also be teacher bias. I know from experience that many teachers believe that students who are neater are smarter. Not necessarily true.