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Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits

288 points · 149 comments · geox

  1. andsoitis · · focus · HN ↗
    > to build daily reading habits among a phone-first population

    Reading is fundamental.

    EDIT: Other skills and habits that you can then build on reading: critical thinking, reasoning, detection and handling own biases, numeracy, financial literacy, and more. All these dimensions are manipulated via phones and the apps on them, so you need a firewall.

    Also: writing. Cursive writing.

    1. Viliam1234 · · focus · HN ↗
      > Cursive writing.

      Is there anything useful about cursive writing? Other than it being positively correlated with many good things because education is the common topic?

      1. homarp · · focus · HN ↗
        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.psychologytoday.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;blog&#x2F;the-athletes-way&#x2F;202010&#x2F;why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.psychologytoday.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;blog&#x2F;the-athletes-way&#x2F;202...

        note that at least &quot;Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom&quot; is critized - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frontiersin.org&#x2F;journals&#x2F;psychology&#x2F;articles&#x2F;10.3389&#x2F;fpsyg.2024.1517235&#x2F;full" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frontiersin.org&#x2F;journals&#x2F;psychology&#x2F;articles&#x2F;10....

        1. 201984 · · focus · HN ↗
          Is there any evidence that handwriting in cursive is better than handwriting normally? The Van der Meer study only compared cursive to typing or drawing, not handwriting.

          It&#x27;s rather suspicious to leave normal handwriting out of the study, and makes me suspect bad faith.

          1. hdgvhicv · · focus · HN ↗
            Anecdotally my kids wrote a fair bit before they were forced to do “joined up writing”. Since then they have stopped almost entirely and what little they do write is far less legible than before.

            If there is one thing I would ban from education it’s this 17th century torture device.

            1. basisword · · focus · HN ↗
              How does this work? In school if they’re forced to write in cursive surely they still have to write the same amount? And if it’s writing in their spare time that has reduced they can write non-cursive so that shouldn’t be a blocker.
              1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

                [deleted]

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