Handwriting needs to continue to be taught in the digital age

While I was visiting with My family the other week, My sister-in-law actually mentioned how she had heard that there are States in the USA where it has been decided that Handwriting should be removed from the educational system in favour of teaching students how to type their notes on the screens of Technology.

With My interest on the topic peaked, I instantly turned to searching Google, and very quickly found articles that indeed show this to be true. Articles like this one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8623605/Indiana-schools-to-teach-children-to-type-instead-of-joined-up-handwriting.html


This, of course, got Me thinking about the pros and cons of discontinuing the practice of teaching this skill. The top pro I could think of on the topic is that a clean, crisp font eliminates the major issue of trying to make out the handwriting style of every person in society.  But then looking at the cons of such a move a realization hit Me.

handwriting needs to be preserved as a tool of digital security!

Every day modern society is ending up hearing stories about credit card data can be replicated, data bases hacked into and Identity Theft happening. Handwriting, in the modern digital age becomes a strong tool in two factor authentication when doing transactions. It is the way contracts are signed. When tracking down the delivery of a package the first question asked is "who signed for it?"

Even delivery via unmanned delivery methods (think Amazon's Drone Delivery) can benefit from the addition of a digitizer screen and cellular enabled camera / transmitter which does not release the delivery until a signature is collected on delivery.

Yes, from My view, one of the worst things to remove from the educational programs of schools is the teaching of the art of handwriting, but what do you think?