When I teach in the classroom, it amazes me to see my students shirking any kind of written work in their notebooks. Some of my students complain of pain in their hand after being told to practise writing five spellings ten times each. Can you believe it? On the other hand, if I give them the same lesson in an interactive format, allowing them to use their digital devices, they give me a praise-worthy outcome.
At times when I write their homework on the board and tell them to note it down in the school diary, they quickly take out their tablet, click a picture of the board and proudly exclaim: “Noted!” Much to my surprise, the smart children ask me: “Mam, instead of writing the answers in the notebook, can we make a PowerPoint and bring it to you in a pen drive?”
And I suddenly go into a flashbacks to my childhood days when I used to love writing. I remember that my mother made me practise writing the alphabet again and again until my handwriting was neat enough to make the reader smile upon looking at it. I used to take part in many calligraphy competitions and make posters for the class bulletin board. I used to make cards and write in them, because it added an affection to my creation that a readymade or e-card could ever give.
Ironically, when I sat to write down this piece, I happily took out my writing pad and pen, but even before I could finish writing the second line, I resorted to my laptop and I started typing the rest. Needless to explain, it is much more convenient and time-saving.
Gone are the days when people used to write things down just to add that little bit of love and warmth to their work. In today’s time, we have the world at our fingertips. We have eliminated the need to write things down, because the internet is keeping a record of all our experiences and memories for us. Worrying about the death of handwriting? Hand – writing? As in writing? Wait, is that even a word?
- The reader is a teacher based in Dubai.
