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STEAM Funding Endorsed BY NEA 2012It's a simple argument. STEM already gets funding by the National Science Foundation under legislation passed some time ago. But now that inclusion of the arts is being recognized, shouldn't STEAM projects get some money too? Yes, says the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and while not as obvious, the National Science Foundation (NSF) seems to agree.
Writing Longhand Makes Kids You Smarter
http://theweek.com/
Typing or texting is a problem for brain development. Most grade-school children are spending only one hour a week on penmanship. Study after study suggests that handwriting is important for brain development and cognition — helping kids hone fine motor skills and learn to express and generate ideas.
Writing by hand can get ideas out faster
University of Wisconsin psychologist Virginia Berninger tested students in grades 2, 4, and 6, and found
that
they not only wrote faster by hand than by keyboard but also generated more ideas when composing essays in
longhand. In other research, Berninger shows that the sequential finger movements required to write by hand
activate brain regions involved with thought, language, and short-term memory.
Writing increases neural activity
A recent Indiana University study had one group of children practice printing letters by hand while a second
group just looked at examples of A's, B's, and C's. Then, both groups of kids entered a
functional
MRI (disguised as a "spaceship") that scanned their brains as the researchers showed them letters.
The neural activity in the first group was far more advanced and "adult-like," researchers found.
Good handwriting makes you seem smarter
Handwriting also affects other people's perceptions of adults and children. Several studies have shown
that the same mediocre essay will score much higher if written with good penmanship and much lower if
written
out in poor handwriting, says Vanderbilt University education professor Steve Graham. "There is a
reader
effect that is insidious," he says. "People judge the quality of your ideas based on your
handwriting." And the consequences are real: On standardized tests with handwritten
sections,
like the SAT, an essay deemed illegible gets a big zero.
This isn't only an English-language phenomenon
Chinese and Japanese youths are suffering from "character amnesia," says AFP's Judith Evans.
They can't remember how to create letters, thanks to computers and text messaging. In China, the problem
is so prevalent, there's a word for it: "Tibiwangzi", or "take pen, forget
character."
"It's like you're forgetting your culture," says Zeng Ming, 22. So closely are Chinese
writing and reading linked in the brain, says Hong Kong University linguist Siok Wai Ting, that China's
reading ability as a nation could suffer.
New technology is part of the solution
New touch-screen phones and tablets, like the iPhone and iPad, are providing a countervailing force,
translating handwriting into digital letter forms or making writing practice fun (a $1.99 iPhone app called
"abc PocketPhonics" rewards kids with "cheering pencils"). In Japan, an iPhone game
called
kanji kentei — a character quiz with 12 levels — has become a hit with all age groups.
Science may just be catching up with common sense
Heather Horn in The Atlantic Wire says that while all this research is fascinating, it mostly shows that
"scientists are finally beginning to explore what writers have long suspected." She notes a 1985
article in the Paris Review in which the interviewer asks novelist Robert Stone if he mostly types his
manuscripts. His reply: "Yes, until something becomes elusive. Then I write in longhand in order to be
precise. On a typewriter or word processor you can rush something that shouldn't be rushed — you can
lose
nuance, richness, lucidity. The pen compels lucidity."