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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| The Lost Art of Note Taking |
| 2026-03-11 |
| [American Thinker] In a former life, I taught math and science to Catholic school students in grades 6-9. In the early 2000s, I began noticing a troubling trend: many students had little to no idea how to take notes from a lecture or a textbook. Some didn’t even know how to hold a pencil correctly. It’s worth noting that, in the years just before I retired, we were receiving significantly more students transferring from public schools. One moment from a ninth-grade Algebra class still stands out. During the first week of school, I noticed a couple of students sitting passively with nothing on their desks -- spectators, as if they were watching a YouTube video rather than attending class. When I told them to take out their notebooks, one student reached into his backpack without looking, pulled out a random notebook, opened to a random page, and began copying what was on the board. When I asked if he was using his Algebra notebook, he checked and discovered it was his History notebook. I then asked to see the notes he had taken the day before. He had no idea where they were. He wasn’t alone. I ended up restarting the class from Day One, teaching them how to record the date, number their notebook pages, copy information neatly, and organize their work -- skills that should be firmly established by middle school. By the time students reach high school, they should be refining these skills and habits, not learning them for the first time. A few students insisted on taking notes on laptops, claiming it was easier than writing by hand. In reality, they spent most of their time wrestling with how to type mathematical symbols and diagrams. Instead of absorbing content, they were battling their devices. I would imagine that some students are now simply recording audio (and video) records of their classes. Does anyone believe those students will repeatedly sit through those entire lectures at home, and call it "studying"? For elementary and high school students, using pencils, pens, and paper for note-taking, writing, and mathematics offers several well-supported advantages over electronic devices. These benefits are grounded in cognitive neuroscience, educational research, and practical classroom experience. Handwriting activates a broader network of brain regions -- including those involved in movement, vision, sensory processing, and memory -- compared to typing. When students write by hand, their brains show more elaborate connectivity and synchronized activity, which supports deeper learning and better retention. Typing produces far less of this neural engagement. Because children’s and adolescents’ brains are still developing, this difference matters. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #4 |
| Posted by: mossomo 2026-03-11 14:58 |
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| Posted by: swksvolFF 2026-03-11 14:17 |
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| Posted by: Besoeker 2026-03-11 08:44 |
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| Posted by: no mo uro 2026-03-11 08:43 |