Wall Street Journal: Handwriting trains the brain!

As a longtime fan of writing in longhand, I thought this article in the Wall Stree Journal was interesting. These days, there are so many methods of quickly communicating and recording thoughts via keyboard that handwriting is frequently taking a back seat to typing.

The article above emphasizes how the act of writing itself helps the brain to develop in productive ways - ways that keyboarding will not.  Information written in longhand is more easily remembered, for example, and the physical act of writing stimulates the brain in ways that could help keep it sharper, longer.

There are, of course, very good reasons why keyboarding has become more popular.  It is legible to everyone, it usually comes with spell-check, it is faster, and it is much easier to edit.

Personally, I use both handwriting and typing.  When I am journaling, I almost exclusively use cursive handwriting.  I have filled literally dozens of notebooks with my random jottings, many of which I'll never read again.  The act of writing them down, of slowly unwinding the words onto the page with plenty of time to reflect - that was the point.  Journaling allows me to put my brain on paper where I can keep an eye on it.  (And nowadays I've graduated from journaling on paper to journaling in longhand with my iPad, which is another story for another day!)  I usually take notes in longhand as well.  I feel that I can retain the information better this way, although if speed or legibility is a real concern I may type notes.

When I am writing anything that will need editing, I usually type it.  It is just so much easier to edit on the computer.  Sometimes I will brainstorm on paper and then type up drafts on the computer, but most of my formal, structured writing is done on the computer.  I have no idea how all the classic masterpieces of human civilization were composed without computers - that makes them even more incredible in my opinion.  I usually don't have a coherent paragraph without rewriting at least three times.  Okay, maybe five.  I could be an obsessive editor, however!

What do I have my children doing?  Well, they are learning cursive handwriting and typing right now.  They do both every day, and I'm convinced that they will both be highly useful tools for training their brains and helping them communicate throughout their lives.