Handwriting should no longer be taught in schools

For centuries, possibly since education came into existence, school-age students were taught to hand-write and practice good penmanship. However, needs have changed and it's no longer as necessary. It's a waste of time for everyone involved! In modern society, other things matter more than pretty letters and writing specific spaces apart. Handwriting is simply so easy to practice and fit outside of school hours that while it's convenient, it's not important enough that it should be taking up teachers, students and parents' time.

Absolutely everyone wastes precious resources on handwriting. Parents pay for supplies, teachers waste time teaching it, and students waste precious brain space and time that could be spent learning more valuable things on fitting letters in between lines. Would you rather your child be learning important life skills such as managing money instead of handwriting? Handwriting wouldn't help a child in life as well as being able to spell properly would. In the end, all this effort goes into such a tedious subject that won't have much beneficial outcome.

And before you start going on about how much handwriting has helped people over the years and how people in history have benefited from good penmanship, do remember we live in a modern society. This is one where the quality of our words matters more than how pretty they are, where we can find ways around bad penmanship. New-age technology allows us to use typing, voice recording, and illustration (to name a few ways) to carry out our ideas without having to write. In the past passing on and retaining information could only be done using the written word so it was of more importance, but now as more and different life skills are required and we can use what assets we have handwriting classes are no longer essential.

When I say 'no longer essential', I mean in school. Of course good handwriting has a few advantages, but not enough for it to become compulsory to learn in the classroom. Important skills such as math and english should be taught by professionals who know how to carry out the right information fruitfully. It's easier to squeeze in handwriting outside of school hours, since it's far more simple to self study and practice writing the alphabet for a few minutes. You could make your own resources, such as lined paper, instead of having to waste money on handwriting books that are used only a few times! 

Isn't it simple to see how tedious and resource-wasting handwriting classes are? Not only are there other ways to practice it without having to waste the time of everyone involved, there's more freedom to invest in more important subjects. Times have changed. Don't restict the promising and budding generation of our future to writing in between the lines!