It is undoubtedly a contentious issue whether schools should continue to teach skills that can be easily performed by technology. With computers becoming the dominant means of communication, many administrators believe that teaching cursive writing, and tables are no longer necessary and that time would be better spent teaching keyboarding skills. However, I believe that teaching cursive writing, tables, and spellings are still important and should not be rejected so soon.
According to Leah and Sushmeet schools should no longer teach cursive writing, multiplication, tables, and spelling because it is easily carried out by technology. With the rapid advancements in technology, teachers are encouraged to use various educational apps and devices for making teaching-learning effective. Integrating technology in the classroom promotes students’ creativity, better engagement, and higher-level thinking. Moreover, Teachers are easily identifying learning gaps and students can receive immediate feedback. It also helps to save teachers time and they can utilize this time to give feedback for higher-level thinking tasks.
Alyssa, Kelly, and Durston argued that schools must teach basic skills. They mentioned that cursive writing necessitates a completely different set of skills than print writing. It entails a different manner of employing the hand muscles. It also engages a different region of the brain than traditional writing. When children learn cursive and begin to write it, they also learn how to form sentences from write to left on paper and they begin to grasp the concept of sentence and word space. It also helps to improve hand-eye coordination. Moreover, making notes by hand rather than on a computer help children to retain their knowledge for a long time. It helps those children who are facing neurological disorders such as dyslexia and dysgraphia
Children who learn cursive writing often have an easier time learning sentence structure. There is a link between learning cursive and improved grammar and spelling. When a youngster learns cursive he or she develops these excellent habits over time. They can learn letter structure, word structure, and sentence structure while learning cursive and rewriting each letter and word. Cursive writing allows children and adults to write more quickly and smoothly
Multiplication is an important tool in a variety of Math subjects, including algebra, calculus, and equations. Despite the fact that many techniques of teaching multiplication have become outdated, many students like to do multiplication and other mathematical calculation via a calculator but the value of knowing these mathematical fundamentals remains as crucial today as it has always been because it helps to boost children’s confidence. This basic ability is necessary for completing many tasks at school and at home such as calculating money. I agree with Kelly that all students should understand basic principles of mathematics because we don’t want them to apply facts they don’t understand.
To summarize, I agree that technology enhances learning and it is more helpful and convenient but essential skills such as multiplication, and cursive writing is still important because if they know the basic skills then in the future they can easily solve problems such as division, calculation, algebra. In India, most of the schools are not allowed to use calculators in exams so if they know about these skills they can easily perform the exams. These skills-building blocks of the higher level of learning so I think we should teach our students about basic skills they need for their future.