Well, it’s official. When you flip open the newspaper these days, you can expect to see a seemingly comically large typo— only to realise the context of such a heading is anything but funny. “Sum thing wrong” appeared across the front page of The West Australian last week, highlighting the concerning results from this year’s NAPLAN testing. Basically, literacy and numeracy skills are dropping at young ages and the education system is coming to a ground breaking solution for Australian schools; returning back to pen and paper!
Yes, pen and paper; a system that is now apparently known to be some sort of historic practice! I graduated from high school only 4 years ago, and we used pen and paper every single day. The fact that the return of something so basic to classrooms is such a serious educational discussion is genuinely shocking.
Australia’s Education Minister noted that the impact of screens and social media on students could have a concerning correlation with this issue; maybe it is that damn phone, after all.
I tutor year 7 students, and now that I come to think of it, I have seen the change in learning first hand. I watch students turn to AI before even allowing themselves to be confused. It has gotten to the point where students are then fascinated to learn something simple like HASS definitions ‘the old fashion way’; “Oh cool, I actually understand that now, usually I just use AI.”- a typical modern age year 7 student.
Where does a creative mind fit into this equation?
Honestly, I think the problem goes much deeper than handwriting. It almost feels as if we are watching an entire generation grow up with even their personalities being shaped by this increasing digital culture. It’s not uncommon these days to hear an average 8 year old speak almost entirely like some favorite Fortnite YouTuber, almost downloading the remarks and internet persona into them; “It’s calm, it’s calm.”
I even think of seeing toddlers in prams being pushed through the park, with iPad screens in front of their faces. When did blue skies, trees, birds and the wonder of the world happening around them lose the battle against brightly coloured cartoon balls bouncing on a screen?
As a 20 year old, I’m part of this digital generation, but even I can see how quickly things are changing in a weird way— these slipping NAPLAN results are only a small indicator of how much weirder it could get. With every brain function seemingly being transferred to the digital, what exactly are we developing? Because at this rate, we might be in the works of seeing an age-old art form lost in one single generation; where my grandchildren might one day say “Wow grandma, did kids really used to hand-write back in the day? No way!”.
Joleen Jublee 
Jamez 
Scarlett Johnstone