Handwriting Notes vs Typing Notes

Homeschoolers have the luxury of choosing to handwrite or type notes on lessons they are doing. Yet, what are the pros and cons and handwriting notes vs typing notes? While technology may afford us some benefits, what is lost in the process?

Handwriting for Developing the Brain and Will

When I taught at the Asheville Waldorf School, a colleague referenced a study which indicated that changing one’s handwriting built more connections in the brain than any other activity. I was surprised to hear this, but upon experimentation I found this was likely true. As I explained in an earlier blog post on this topic, both my students tend to be most focused in the classroom when I am teach a new handwriting skill. I have also observed this happening in myself.

The founder of Waldorf Education, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, prescribed handwriting as a treatment for illnesses, both mental and physical. We may find this a curious thing, but what is the theory behind it? It is that handwriting incarnates the self, and that is protective against illness. There is a connection between executive function in the brain and the activity of the self. This is mysterious connection and bears further study. However, it’s one of the treatments I, myself, have been prescribed by an Anthroposphical doctor. I can tell you from personal experience, there is something to this.

Research on Handwriting and Learning

Recent studies indicate that something different happens in the brain when handwriting notes vs typing notes. According to this research, we are more likely to remember something when we write it down vs. typing it because of the way it filters through the nervous system. When handwriting notes, we use far more of the brain than during typing. The process of forming handwritten letters can even alter brain waves to match those typically found in a more contemplative state of mind. All this suggests we engage more of our being with the learning when we handwrite vs typing our notes.

Don’t Take the Easy Way Out

One of the developmental principles in Waldorf Education is that what the hands do in the youth becomes thinking later on in life. This is perhaps why Richard Feynman became so brilliant. He spent his childhood tinkering with old cars in a junkyard behind his house. All this hand-based tinkering became brilliance of thought later on.

Homeschooling in the digital age brings the temptation to replace the human capacity for writing (and arithmetic, for that matter) with technology. Don’t take the easy way out. Make your students do their lesson work by hand. They will thank you later in life.