Creating a generation that can’t express itself.
A ten-year-old today can write flawless Python code but struggles to pen a simple thank-you note without Grammarly. That single sentence captures the irony of modern education — we are raising a generation that can communicate with machines but not with fellow humans. In our eagerness to make children “future-ready,” we risk creating tech-savvy illiterates.
Walk into any classroom and the digital takeover is evident. Tablets have replaced notebooks, typing has replaced thinking, and coding classes begin before handwriting lessons end. Teachers proudly announce “AI-integrated learning,” while cursive writing quietly disappears from timetables. In some Delhi schools, students use chatbots to draft essays they barely understand. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 rightly promotes coding and digital skills, but in practice, it risks producing students who can design apps yet struggle to write coherent paragraphs or express complex thoughts. Handwriting — once seen as a mark of focus and discipline — is now treated as a relic. Yet neuroscience paints a different picture. Writing by hand strengthens memory, comprehension, and neural coordination. Finland, one of the most technologically advanced nations, reintroduced cursive writing after noticing falling literacy and attention spans among digitally trained children. India, in contrast, seems to be replacing penmanship with PowerPoint.
Digital literacy is essential, but in prioritising keyboards over key ideas, we are losing depth. Students scroll endlessly but rarely read; they post frequently but write poorly. Their language has shrunk to emojis and acronyms — “LOL” has replaced laughter, and “AI” has replaced imagination. Technology is not the problem — imbalance is. Coding can foster creativity and problem-solving, but when it eclipses language, empathy, and art, it creates intellectual asymmetry. Coding teaches us to talk to computers; cursive teaches us to talk to ourselves. The effects extend beyond schools. Employers increasingly report that while graduates are technically skilled, they are emotionally and linguistically limited — unable to articulate ideas or communicate with empathy.
The same youth who can design software often struggle to write emails or hold thoughtful conversations. True literacy — expression, persuasion, and reflection — is being sacrificed for digital convenience.
The COVID-19 pandemic deepened this divide as classrooms went online. Copy-paste replaced comprehension; handwriting vanished altogether. Even today, many students prefer typing to thinking. Yet history reminds us: Steve Jobs found inspiration in calligraphy, and Einstein wrote letters, not tweets. Clarity of thought begins with clarity of expression — born first on paper, then on screens. It’s time to restore balance.
Let children code, but also let them craft sentences. Let schools teach Python — but not before prose. The world needs not just programmers, but human communicators. Coding may build the future, but cursive — and the consciousness it cultivates — will ensure that future remains human.