More in the tea leaves

I saw a Facebook post of a photograph of a someone's second grader's homework.  On the line for the name the child had written her name "Alyssa."  The name was in cursive handwriting.  The teacher had written a comment by the child's name, "Do not write in cursive.  I have already warned you twice about this."

This is really unusual, but it illustrates where literacy is headed.  Reading and writing are definitely on their way out the door.  Even in traditional circles at least one person is thinking that printing is the only legitimate kind of handwriting.  That could just be the effect of the computer on a generation of young people, but I see it as a signal that even the traditionalists are moving toward a different definition of literacy.  Cursive handwriting has effectively been greatly diminished in use for a decade now.  One teacher is waging a campaign to keep it that way.

But in the larger picture, printing is on the way out too.  A recent Reuters News Agency ad in a Google banner read, "Read less, know more."  Included in the ad was a video of a news story.  The dots have been put in place over the last 9 years since the advent of the iphone.  Now the dots are being connected.  It's amazing to me that people continue to want literacy to be writing/reading-based rather than opting to embrace what is on the horizon now and soon to be mainstream.

I promised myself I would chart this change from 2007 to 2017.  I have, but it's hard to see so many unbelievers.  Well, one day...