Why handwriting is an essential skill and must not die out – Bill Jamieson

A handwritten note or letter is a unique, signature guide to our very soul, writes Bill Jamieson.

Children should not be robbed of such a practical and pleasure-giving life skill as handwriting (Picture: Phil Wilkinson)

Welcome to the world of illiteracy. According to the new orthodoxy, it’s not for parents to teach children how to read and write – that’s the job of teachers, or for those who have not abandoned handwriting as old hat.

Time was when children went to school at the age of five able to read and write. What an unconscionable burden this has now placed on parents, now deemed so ill-equipped for this task!

Already traditional handwriting is as good as dead. Government ministers are now advising parents to forego passing on the skills of handwriting and instead are urging parents to promote digital exercise books – as per the Department for Education’s six approved smartphone/tablet apps via its Hungry Little Minds website – as if chronic addiction to mobile phones was not troubling enough.

Handwriting is an essential skill, required in everyday tasks from simple note-taking to the traditional personal letter. When we write a note of condolence to a bereaved relative, or one of personal congratulation, or an expression of the heart to a loved one, who really thinks that a trite mobile phone message in 8pt. sans serif Ariel really cuts it? Why bother to compose at all if you can download a standard pro forma love letter from an app?

Handwriting is a unique personal signature guide to our very soul, individual and unique to us. Care taken on a personal hand-written letter means so much more than a literal-splattered text message and fatuous silly-face meme. I was fortunate to be taught italic handwriting, encouraged by my parents and by a handbook of examples by the author Tom Gourdie. This book has been with me for decades, with its inspiring range of italic styles. It was reinforced by a painstaking teacher who made us do upstrokes and downstrokes till we had mastered the discipline of clear and elegant writing – a habit that has lasted a lifetime.

No iPhones, battery chargers, or anti-social texting with head bowed, and eye-strain. Just pen and paper – far cheaper and infinitely more flexible than a phone, universally available and practical for all manner of correspondence. And a source of pride when undertaken.

What is happening to us that we are dumbing down our children and stripping them of such a basic, practical and pleasure-giving life skill?