{"id":2585,"date":"2016-08-26T10:16:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T14:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.daed.com\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2024-07-11T10:59:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T14:59:29","slug":"irredeemable-2-spacers-aka-teaching-outmoded-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.daed.com\/?p=2585","title":{"rendered":"Irredeemable 2-Spacers (Aka Teaching Outmoded Skills)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little while back, our office had a rather lively email debate about how many spaces should be typed after a period\u2014no, I\u2019m not joking, this actually happened. Anyway, about half of those chiming in claimed it should be a single space and the other half insisted on two.<\/span><\/p>\n

It must have been a slow day, because I delved deeper into the issue (which apparently goes far beyond our office), and found an interesting<\/span> post from Farhad Manjoo<\/a>. It turns out that our \u201cirredeemable two spacers\u201d\u2014who are completely and utterly wrong\u2014came about thanks to technology. Typewriters used a monospace font, meaning that wide and narrow characters were all given the same space. So sometimes it was difficult to immediately spot the end of a sentence. Adding the second space enhanced readability. Even though computers use proportional fonts, we continue to type two spaces because many teachers still teach that rule; it\u2019s how they learned to type. (I’m retraining myself, but spellchecker still occasionally finds double spaces).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Manjoo argues that \u201cwe would never accept teachers pushing other outmoded ideas on kids because that’s what was popular back when they were in school\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

That struck a chord, because my daughter\u2019s school, much like others, is in the midst of the cursive writing debate. Should cursive writing continue to be taught?<\/span> I\u2019m a proponent of keeping it (for some of the reasons discussed<\/span> in this article<\/a>), but advocates of dropping it argue that nearly all written communication is now composed on a keyboard, that print suffices when a handwritten communique is needed, and that printed signatures are legal. They argue that teaching an outmoded style of writing takes time away from other topics that are of more value.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s that word again. Outmoded<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between these two, I began to wonder: at what point do we, as a society, decide that a skill has become outmoded? Some of these seem obvious\u2014learning to churn butter or joust is outmoded unless you intend to make your living at a Renaissance faire. On the opposite side, I doubt anyone\u2014except students\u2014would argue against teaching basic math despite the ubiquity of calculators or against teaching medical personnel how to take a manual blood pressure reading even though technology can now do it faster or more accurately.<\/span><\/p>\n

So where do we draw that line? At what point do we say that due to technology this skill<\/em> is no longer needed? At what point do we deem a skill so critical that despite advances in technology this skill<\/em> must be taught?<\/span><\/p>\n

As voice transcription capabilities advance, will there come a time when both handwriting and typing are deemed to be outmoded?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Featured image by<\/span> tsg1\u00a0<\/a>|<\/span> Pixabay License<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little while back, our office had a rather lively email debate about how many spaces should be typed after a period\u2014no, I\u2019m not joking, this actually happened. 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