Can you communicate?

Over the years I have oft lamented the loss of cursive and the inability of younger generations to communicate through writing.  Yes, I know, this is the digital age but it amazes me that many cannot read cursive (and have trouble reading the ordinary printing which substitutes for cursive).  Worse, however, is their inability to write without technology (other than a pen or pencil) to come to their aid.  Indeed, aside from doodling and marking in the blanks, I am not quite sure what people use a pen or pencil for anymore.

I have often said that the best class I had in high school was typing.  They were old manual typewriters (though we did have one electric in the classroom) and we were graded on speed and accuracy.  To get an "A" (which I did) you had to type better than 70 words a minute and do it accurately.  My kids did not have Typing 101.  Instead they had "keyboarding" -- whatever that means.  One of them is fairly proficient typing though by no means as fast or as accurate as my wife and I are.  The other two type the way one would on a small screen (phone or tablet).  According to one estimate, less than 5% of students still take a keyboarding class and, well, no one takes typing.

The sad reality is that for many, if not most, younger folks, they can communicate only through the lingo of the text message or by dictating to Siri or Cortana or Google Assistant or whatever version of a Siri style dictation tool there is on their phone or tablet.  If they cannot speak into a microphone to get their words on a page, they are at a severe disadvantage.  Nevermind AI or ChatGPT or other versions of it, if you cannot master the keyboard to be fast and accurate, you have a disability when it comes to communicating.  It is no wonder that they have lost their ability to read complex sentences or digest detailed and long paragraphs but it is also no surprise that they cannot write long, complex, or detailed sentences and paragraphs and are left to sound like a text message when they do write.

News at the end of January reported US fourth- and eighth-grade students are struggling with reading comprehension with last year’s nationwide testing showing the worst results in over two decades. Average reading scores deteriorated among students who took the Congressionally-mandated assessment in 2024, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.  About one third of eight graders’ reading scores were below the assessment’s basic level, the largest sub-standard result in the history of the assessment. Among fourth graders, roughly 40% scored below the basic threshold, the largest portion since 2002. More than 235,000 fourth graders and 230,000 eighth graders across thousands of public and private schools throughout the country were administered the NAEP assessment from which representative samples are drawn. The assessment reports results in three levels of achievement: advanced, proficient and basic.  This is not a failure to excel but a failure even to achieve basic competance.

The mark of civilization lies most profoundly in the realm of our ability to communicate with each other and the hallmark of this in the past was the ability to read and write.  Could it be that we are living in a less eloquent generation in part because some of us are becoming less and less proficient in the language skills and ordinary tools of communication that once were the benchmark of erudition, education, and intelligence?  Of course, it does not need to be said but with a religion of the Word of God, this has serious and dire consequences for a faith that hears the voice of God as both a written and oral Word.  For my part, the keyboard and a fountain pen are not only my tools in trade but a delightful way to spend my time.