"Why are we wasting time teaching kids to write?"

Is teaching children to put pen to paper really a gigantic waste of time in 2014? This writer votes yes.

Let’s get honest for a minute.

Handwriting is becoming extinct.

Technically, the only thing keeping handwriting alive is our stubbornness to not let old traditions go.

And it’s wasting valuable school time.

The New York Times reported that according to US educators handwriting doesn’t mean much any more. In the Common Core standards in the US syllabus, teaching hand writing is only done in Kindy and Year 1. After that….”the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.”

So why teach hand writing in the first place? Well look, some academics have good reason: “When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris, told the New York Times. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain. And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realise. Learning is made easier.”

Well, yes, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not actually useful any more. In my opinion, typing should begin from Kindy.

When I mentioned this in the office, all the mums said the same thing: “But it is so adorable when they can write their own name.”

Sure, it's adorable. But that is only because their mums (your mums and my mum too) valued this. So when they (and you and I) came home one day and wrote our names, there was a big celebration. So we think that this moment - the ability to write our name, legibly - is a skill. And sure, it is. But it is now a useless skill. Just like the many years I was forced to learn running writing - thank you teachers, now I can read all those original Shakespeare manuscripts I have lying around my house.

What I would be far more impressed with is how they can type. Legible handwriting is now speed-typing. A Kindy kid who can type without looking at the keyboard - genius status.

And I am not alone in my point of view. On Bam Radio Network, Steve Graham, professor of special education and literacy at Vanderbilt University, who researches writing instruction and development said that we're using a 20th-century tool in a 21st-century world. Co-panellist, Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation, pointed out that children want to type, to write more fluently and get ideas out of their heads as fast as possible.

But they will need to write at some point, I hear you shout.

Not really. When was the last time you read a handwritten book. Really, the only time you actually write is to make grocery lists, or some other to-do list that you will definitely leave behind somewhere. But kids who have had computers in their life since their first breath now make notes on their iPhone. And that is pretty smart - because there is no way they are going to leave that behind.

Even diaries are dead. Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and blogging took over.

But they need to learn hand-eye coordination. Again, being able to control where your fingers type without looking is hand-eye coordination.

Still not convinced? Let me try again.

Once upon a time, people chiselled on rock to leave messages behind. And once upon a time, a mum was ecstatic when their child was able to do the same. Mammoth chiselled on a rock - genius status.

Thank God, a new technology was created (and people let go). Otherwise, you would currently have a rock note pad in your bag. And that is what we are doing to our kids. We are asking them to drag heavy books made of paper around and teaching them to write. When it is so outdated.

So let's ditch the paper (just like we ditched the rocks) and focus our kid's brain-absorbing ability to learn a useful skill.

Do you agree that there should be more focus on typing and less on writing?

Want more? Try this:

If your child can’t do these 7 things, they’re not ready for school.

This is why I homeschool my kids.