The history of handwriting and handwriting systems is sketched out in this article by Oberlin professor and GOOD columnist Anne Trubek.
Trubek also sketches out the history of the writing machines that began to replace handwriting from 1874 onward, with the invention of the first typewriter. Plus she includes a few notes about how old writing systems tend to get romanticized when they’re replaced by other systems more practical to people’s daily needs.
Handwriting was never fully replaced by typewriting — after all, the modern mass-produced fountain pen was invented after the typewriter — but it has been almost fully replaced by word processing, as it’s the most direct route between a head full of thoughts and a finished document expressing them.
Trubek ends with the interesting argument that handwriting should be downplayed or ignored in grammar school in favor of word processing. It’s not a reflexive “out with the old” argument, but an egalitarian one: she observes that teachers often give lower grades to the kids with bad handwriting, regardless of the merit of the content.
This may be more practical than it appears at first glance — there’s no need for kids to use full-powered laptops in order to learn word processing, as the cheap and durable AlphaSmart demonstrates. Here’s the article link again.
