By Anissa Ramirez PhD
Original Source: Edutopia
Originally posted August 6, 2014

My Catholic school third grade teacher was extremely tough on me. Her biggest gripe was my handwriting, which looked more like an EKG scan than penmanship. For years, I harbored not-so-fond memories of her, but now I know that her strictness about penmanship was actually helping my brain develop. Recently, scientists have shown that longhand writing benefits the brain.

Today, cursive writing is becoming a lost art as note taking with laptops becomes more and more prominent in classrooms. But what we are losing is much bigger than a few scratches on a page — we are losing a robust way of learning.

There has been much debate on the use of laptops for note taking in classrooms. The pro side sees laptops as an efficient way of collecting and storing information. The con side sees laptops as an opportunity for distractions and multitasking. What’s missing is an understanding of how taking notes by longhand influences the brain. Recent studies have shown that students taking notes with laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than the students taking notes by longhand. In short, they had the information on their computers, but did not have an understanding of that information in their brains.

So in this age of technology, I’m suggesting that students take notes with paper and pen. It’s a crazy idea, but hear me out.

A Plea for Penmanship

When students take notes with their laptops, they tend to mindlessly transcribe the data word for word, like speech-to-text software. But taking notes verbatim is not the point. What is lacking in their note-taking-by-laptop is the synthesis, the re-framing, and the understanding of the information. Students that transcribe with laptops have shallow connections to what’s being presented to them. However, those who are taking notes by hand are processing the information and representing it in a way that makes sense to them. They are learning.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that longhand writing is so 19th century. But we need to answer a question: do we want students to have a deep or shallow connection to the information we’re giving them? While we live in a world of short sound bytes where news is thrown at us unprocessed, this should not be the mode for schools. In the 21st century, the ability to connect knowledge in new ways is more important than the knowledge itself. So students with deeper connections to information can link it in new ways — they can create.

The Pen is Mightier

All this begs the question of how we can incorporate longhand in a digital age. What about a daily notebook, written by hand?

A lost art in the world of science is the lab notebook. In it, scientists write down observations, impressions, and all the variables and outcomes of an experiment. If you are teaching STEM classes, might I suggest that you resurrect the lab notebook and have students personalize it? Give them assignments where they have to hand-draw pictures of what they see and what they predict. Let them figure out how to visually represent these things — without digital pictures, by the way. The data says that taking images with a camera does not improve one’s memory either, so these notebook entries must be written or drawn. Skill doesn’t matter. What we are fostering are experiential links in a child’s brain, and one of the best pathways is through their fingers.

If you are not teaching STEM classes, have students carry a personal notebook in which they write down observations and draw things by hand on whatever topic. We are trying to create more connections to information, and developing fine motor skills along the way.

If you have a classroom with lots of technology, try to integrate note taking. Often when I give my PowerPoint slides to students, I pass out a version that doesn’t have all the information that students are seeing on the screen, which means that they need to fill it in by hand. And when I glance over their notes, I see how their work doesn’t always look the same. This is great because my students are doing the most important thing we can teach them — they are learning how to teach themselves.

So let us not confuse efficiency with the real goal of teaching. Teaching is not a job of cramming as much as we can into a brain. It is about learning. And getting students to learn means that we must use every pathway to connect them with the information. Using laptops reinforces the Industrial Revolution ideal that every kid should get the information in the same way, and that it should come out the same way. But by occasionally replacing the laptop with a pen, learning happens, which is why we got into this business in the first place.

The spring and summer seasons are a great time for rising seniors to start working on their college essays. There are numerous books, expert guides, and how-to checklists for writing the the most important few-hundred words of a high schooler’s career; however, there really are only a few key things to keep in mind. When discussing ideas and approaches with your child, make sure to relate the following:

DON’T rehash your resume. Are you a debate club junkie? Have you won numerous awards for your arguing acumen? Is your debate coach writing one of your recommendations? Then it’s covered–don’t write about debate team or anything related in your essay.

DON’T use obvious or overused examples such as a story about how you fell down during a cross country race and managed to finish, or one about how you got a C in Chemistry in the fall but worked hard to raise it to an A in the spring. The former is a generic trope that doesn’t reveal anything about you; the latter will be obvious from your transcript.

DON’T try to be funny. Admissions counselors are reading the essay to get a better, more well-rounded sense of who you are. If you come off as chummy, you will look like you don’t take the school or the application process seriously. Even worse, your sense of humor could come off as offensive. Save your jokes for your texts with friends.

DO show. DON’T tell. Boring verbs=boring sentences=boring essay.

Example Prompt: Explain your desire to attend Princeton University.

Boring Intro: “Since I was a kid, I always knew I wanted to go to Princeton because it has a good English Department. I have always loved reading and writing, and Princeton’s program is one of the best the nation. The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel in particular, and, since F. Scott Fitzgerald attended Princeton, I know I would like it there.”

Better Intro: “In my family, we call my Aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bookie” because every time I go to visit her in New Brunswick, she sends me home with armloads of books to read. She introduced me to Alice and the rabbit hole, Milo and his tollbooth, Bilbo Baggins and Middle-Earth, and, most importantly, Nick Carraway and West Egg. When I finished the Great Gatsby, she suggested that we take a trip to nearby Princeton so I “could see a college for writers.” As we walked around the campus, I began to imagine I was Fitzgerald dreaming up Gatsby’s extravagant parties…”

DO be vulnerable. DON’T be defiant or depressing. Were you scared after your mom lost her job? Did your brother’s rare cancer put stress your relationship to him? It’s OK to highlight rough patches in your life as long as you do so to illustrate what you learned about yourself or how you grew as a person. If your grandmother dying last year was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to go through,  that’s perfectly fine to write about–just make sure your story has an arc.

Finally, remember that the essay is only one piece of the application pie. Your personal statement could be the best one in the pile, but if your grades, recommendations, test scores, and extracurriculars are not up to par, it won’t be what gets you into school. That being said, if you have a solid application, an essay that provide insights into who you are that the admissions team otherwise would have no indication of from the rest of your documents will be an enormous asset in setting you apart from the other applicants.

By Daphne Muller, Private Tutor