Reduce wastage, but don’t forget benefits of writing

I would agree that we should be eco-warriors and reduce paper usage — and the many other ways we consume natural resources and leave our carbon footprint — where possible. (“Why do schools use so much paper in digital age?”; March 14)

But I dread the day our schools decide to do away with paper in favour of tablets and keyboards, because of what it might do to our children’s and our collective cognitive skills and overall cognitive development. Unlike inherited language skills, writing (on paper) is a skill learnt from scratch.

Writing has a therapeutic effect that trains the coordination of the left and right halves of our brain, centring the mind. It fires up our creativity and benefits long-term memory.

And we seem to absorb less when we read off a tablet; the information does not seem to stick as well, compared with reading from a conventional book, magazine or newspaper.

For the sake of our next generation, let us continue to recycle and dream up new ways of reducing wastage, but may we also continue to use paper, albeit less, as part of our educational system.