As the digital age continues to rise and technology is used in every part of everyday life, handwriting is losing its status as an essential skill.

Students often disregard active practice of their handwriting skills when they get to middle school due to the implementation of school-issued chromebooks which have replaced a majority of handwritten assignments. But the issue goes all the way back to elementary school where handwriting has already been declining in importance.

In 2010, the Common Core standards, adopted by FCPS and schools all over the U.S., omitted handwriting and cursive in favor of keyboarding. This removed mandatory cursive instruction and practice, leading to the diminishment of handwriting instruction as a whole for this generation.

Unfortunately, students will likely completely stop using pen and paper in the future due to this decline in usage and overreliance on digital assignments. This trend is extremely concerning and schools must address this issue before it is too late and students completely lose essential cognitive benefits and communication skills that are taught through handwriting.

According to the National Institute of Health, handwriting has benefits necessary in school as it activates essential parts of the brain involved in motor, sensory and cognitive processing. On the other hand, typing engages the brain less, resulting in more passive cognitive engagement.

Additionally, being able to read diverse writing styles is a life skill necessary for all due to it being crucial for effective communication. This can be supported by being exposed to different forms and styles of handwriting.

“I still write in cursive and people struggle with reading it,” sophomore Oviyah Ramakrishnan said.

Handwritten documents, especially in cursive, have been the traditional standard throughout history. So, people who struggle to read other’s handwriting have started to lose a sense of literacy and a social disconnect across generations has been created.

Moreover, practicing handwriting is beneficial to increase speed, clarity and retention in educational and professional settings. Students who struggle to write efficiently may miss key details during lessons and poor handwriting’s lack of comprehensibility makes reviewing notes frustrating and ineffective. Furthermore, poor handwriting reflects poor literacy even if the actual writing is well done.

While notes in some classes are still often handwritten, it’s not enough practice in a student’s daily life. Students and teachers should work to maintain regular handwriting practice, including cursive rather than just print. Short daily writing exercises, encouraging students to write notes on paper, handwritten drafts or incorporating cursive reading activities into lessons are options to be incorporated in order to preserve these skills without sacrificing digital literacy.

Prioritizing handwriting is not diminishing the technological advancement of typing, as it can be much quicker, easier and more convenient to manage—especially in an educational setting where a lot of writing must be completed in a short period of time. However, primarily typing in every class causes handwriting exercise to plummet, losing both the cognitive benefits and fine motor skills necessary to prevent handwriting from degrading.

The lack of penmanship instruction in current students has caused a significant imbalance in handwriting skill with many failing to develop their handwriting through practice. Rather than allowing handwriting to continue becoming a relic of the past, it’s crucial for students and teachers to make a conscious effort to balance physical and digital writing proficiency.