I read with great interest Anne Trubek's article titled "Handwriting Is History" (January-February 2010). In 2008, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, featured my work on holistic future's forecasting. I am old enough to recall the 1980s predictions of both the paperless society and of technology fostering so much leisure time that people's future lack of need to work would become a severe societal problem. "Machine replaces human" in a world as complex as this one has a poor track record. Moreover, slowness of thought (fostered by handwriting) has its irreplaceable ... Read More
Handwriting Is History
December 17, 2009 • By • 45 Comments
At 11 p.m. on Dec. 27, I checked my inbox out of habit. I had 581 new e-mails. All had been sent between 8 and 11 p.m. The days between Christmas and New Year's are not usually a busy time for e-mailing. What was going on? It turns out that the home page for MSN.com had linked to a short article I had published a year earlier. In the article, I argue that we should stop teaching cursive in primary schools and provide some background on the history of handwriting to back up my claims. The comments on my piece were hostile, insulting and vehemently opposed to my argument. The onslaught ... Read More
