Pencil Week 2014: longhand writing = learning

Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 sharpened with a Kum 2-step long point sharpener.

May 26-31, 2014 is pencil week.  Did you know there was such a week?  I imagine that there are pencil lovers around the globe appreciating their pencils, sharing pencil lore, and engaging in pencil revelry.  Camaraderie of the pencil.  I love it.

This week The Washington Post had an article about recent research published in Psychological Science about the increased learning among students who take notes longhand versus with a keyboard.  Researchers found that students performed better in conceptual understanding and factual content when they took notes longhand during lectures.

Something is going on in the brain.

Or, are we typing too fast, and does that make us lazy?  Is it easier to just transcribe what is heard while taking notes with a keyboard?  Longhand note-taking is more conducive to summarizing the points in the lecture, which entails another layer of "thinking".  That thinking transfers to learning, remembering what is learned, and manipulating concepts makes a lot of sense. 

Yet, the researchers stated that keyboard note-takers who were asked to summarize points in their notes as if they were writing longhand didn't perform better.

As the debate continues over the loss of handwriting skills from public schools across the nation, cognitive science is stepping in with interpretations of the significance of the emergence of a heavy reliance upon the keyboard in learning.

While we deconstruct the social implications of the loss of handwriting in education, the aesthetics should also be considered.  Writing longhand is a lot of fun.  With a nice pencil, it is an experience nonparallel.

I wonder if the folks in the study who learned more by taking notes longhand actually enjoyed the lectures and studying more?

Has the simple feat of handwriting become an act of rebellion?

This act that I am performing, writing in cursive, is accomplished less frequently these days.  I recently searched #cursive on twitter, which itself seems an oxymoron, and found numerous claims that cursive hadn’t been used in years, was forgotten, or was abandoned.  

This begs the question, who “needs” to learn the skill of handwriting in the era of the keyboard?  One opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled "Good riddance, cursive" compared the skill of writing cursive to forging horse-shoes, lute playing or jousting.  (At least those skills could come in handy at Renaissance Fairs.)

Therefore, I ask the following questions.   

Did we abandon the bicycle with the advent of the automobile?  Did we abandon painting with the invention of photography?  Aren’t bicycles and paintings some of the joys in life?  Why would we abandon a skill like cursive with the proliferation of the keyboard?  Are we merely rote machines who communicate?

That cursive is no longer being taught in many schools means that the choice of how to communicate is being intentionally limited.  Is the choice that is not dependent upon the consumption of high technology being passed over in the name of efficiency?  Of progress?

Writing cursive is an experience void of advertising pop-ups, critical software updates and background scans.  It cannot be accessed remotely or scanned by internet spiders, the NSA, or antivirus software.  In this post-post-modern era of high tech communication, the simple feat of handwriting is an act of rebellion.

Many of the best works were written longhand, from the U.S. Constitution to Henry Beston’s The Outermost House.  While these works were revolutionary in their own time, is it now the technique of their composition that is unconventional?

Your cursive notes, letter, or draft manuscript are analog.  In the era of digital communication, data centers and wireless networks that are powered by electricity, with their own networks and resource consumption needs, analog may be the last impediment to efficiency or progress.  But hasn’t progress always been a blind faith in an unknown future without questioning whether it is desirable, beneficial or sustainable?

I am going to form my thoughts and write them down by the natural morning light, not the glow of the computer screen.   

In my act of sedition against efficiency and progress, I challenge the dominance of digital communication and the impact that it has in our own future.  I am writing cursive.

Pencil Smackdown: General's Kimberly 2B vs. all the Palomino Blackwings

A historian and scholar of art and tattoos accustomed to the Blackwing needs a pencil for the archives that doesn't have an eraser.  I do not have a huge collection of wooden pencils, and I am more of a mechanical pencil gal, but I thought maybe the General's Kimberly 2B might suit.

Any fellow stationery nerds? I use Blackwing pencils, but they're no good in archives, as they have erasers. What's a good alternative?
— Dr. Matt Lodder (@mattlodder) May 17, 2014

How does the Kimberly compare?  Being a fan of 2B lead, I only have the Kimberly in 2B.  Writing with it is enjoyable.  The point is quite long-lasting.  The graphite is not as dark, but the pencil makes a wonderful noise on the paper (one sheet of paper on my wooden clipboard, shown).  The graphite does not smudge, except just slightly from very deliberate rubbing.

The Blackwings, all three, are favorites for wooden pencils and are well loved by many.

Left to right:  General's Kimberly 2B, Palomino Blackwing 602, Blackwing Pearl and Blackwing.

The side-by-side comparison of the Blackwings to the General's Kimberly makes me second-guess my earlier suggestion. Perhaps it would be better to get a saw and cut the ferrule off the Blackwing?

Oh, what we will do to and for our pencils! 

Sharpening a Palomino Blackwing Pencil

The Palomino Blackwing, the relaunch of the famous Blackwing Pencil

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Kum makes a special pencil sharpener with the Palomino Blackwing brand.  It is a 2-step long-point sharpener.

Getting started sharpening the Palomino Blackwing pencil with the Kum Palomino Blackwing sharpener is an exciting experience.

The wood comes off the pencil in a delicate curl.

The curl makes a crown.  The sound of this sharpener cutting the wood is fantastic.

When the lead hits the stop, we are done with the first step.  Notice that the blade did not cut the lead,  only the wood.  Notice how the blades are replaceable?

Next we sharpen the lead with the second blade.  It only takes a few twists to put a fine point on the pencil.

All done.  A perfectly sharpened Palomino Blackwing pencil.

Unplug for Earth Day challenge: pick up a pencil

My dear friend Mark has told me countless time that true "environmentalists" use computers for writing because it saves paper.

There is some legitimate and expert accounting that could be done to measure the impact of writing with a pencil and paper versus writing with a computer.  A life-cycle analysis of the raw materials needed and pollution emitted from the manufacture, transport and end-of-life processing for the tools of the trade:  laptops, pencil leads, the paper itself, and the energy needed to run computers, factories for making computers, paper, pencils and lead, and recycling systems. 

This is not such an accounting of the costs and benefits (and externalities) of keyboarding vs. longhand writing.  This is about feeling grounded and breaking a task (or joy) down to the basic elements of written communication.

In invite you to pick up a pencil. (Mark, please just entertain me here.)

[For full disclosure, and to be kind to the earth, I am writing this on 100% recycled paper and I am reusing paper that has something printed on the other side that I no longer need].

Your pencil was designed, through a deliberative process over centuries, to write well and feel comfortable in your hand.  If you are accustomed to keyboarding, extended writing may feel tiresome.  If it causes your hand to cramp, you are holding your pencil too tight.  Relax.

Step away from your computer and your desk.  Grab a clipboard or a large book for a writing surface.  Lean back against a mossy hill and enjoy the relaxed posuture that is impossible sitting at a desk.

The tools of writing are now conforming to your body.   Your mind can now disconnect from the rules of grammar and spelling that impeded the flow of thoughts on most computer typing interfaces.  You can always clean it up anyway on a second pass or during transcription to a computer.

Before you know it, you may prefer this too much to turn to the keyboard first.