Is "writing" an art ?

As I was driving the turnpike this really wet, not so Aprily morning, getting into the final week of the Spring Semester, I could not but recall the mayhem in the class last Wednesday. When the professor of my marketing class said that next week we will have to “write” a case analysis as a part of the final exams, no body really gave it much attentions – rather than the usual “oh ! Sxxx – I thought we did the paper and she said she was impressed by all the work – why do we need to have another exam …” It was not until she said “ I will get you the paper books and make sure you have good pens” that the diverse islands of chatter converged to the same …. “Write an exam? - 2 hours??...Can we not bring our laptops and type it in?

That is so true …I think writing has now literally become an art. As the laptops become ubiquitous, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is starting to show another obvious example. My thoughts don’t start flowing until I have my hands on the keyboard. I even take notes in class on my laptop. It is not that I do not like “writing” by hand. In fact, I still buy fountain pens and go looking for ink (it is so hard to get bottles of fountain pen ink in the States), but that is purely for scribbling notes and doodling while on endless conference calls. If I have to do some serious creative “writing”, I need my laptop.. that is how I write…

I wonder if kids need to learn to “write” or rather handwrite anymore? All you need to do is recognize the alphabets, isn’t it ? or maybe I am taking it too far …