Is It Time to Only Teach Keyboarding over Handwriting?

by Zeintz - Jan.2008 

There is a conflict between writing and keyboarding. The question is which needs to be taught and when? Does keyboarding overshadow handwriting to the extent that handwriting should no longer be taught?

Handwriting is an essential skill. There are many times that we need to write so it is imperative for students to learn to write in elementary school. Do students need to be taught both manuscript AND cursive? I don’t think so. It doesn’t make sense to teach them how to “print” their ideas in 1st and 2nd grade and then how to “handwrite” them in 4th and 5th grade. Teaching cursive writing is merely a way to teaching students to write quickly. Perhaps keyboarding has taken the place of cursive because it enables students to enter their thoughts even faster than they would if they were using cursive.

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