"What's Lost As Handwriting Fades," by Maria Konnikova, was one of last week's most e-mailed articles from the New York Times -- struck quite a nerve for what might seem an arcane, almost laughably obsolete capability in a world of keyboards, touch screens and voice commands.

Citing several recent studies by psychologists, Konnikova says: "Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters ­ but how."

The physicality of the act -- pencil scratching (don't forget the smell of the wood shavings), pen sliding or hiccuping (ah, the vagaries of ink!), the individuality of curve, sine and arabesque --seems to inscribe what we learn into our neurons in deep and lasting ways yet to be fully understood. We may be literally imprinting knowledge (not just data) into our brains by virtue of the strokes and gestures that handwriting requires.

The implications run wider. For instance, architects have been debating the relevance of drawing by hand since the introduction of CAD-CAM software. (I recommend the eloquent points made by Paolo Belardi and Juhani Pallasmaa, and more generally the work of Frank Wilson.)

While embracing the software, many are now raising concerns about the lack of traditional drawing skills among younger architects. The traditionally trained claim that, while the software is indispensable, it cannot replace the guiding hand itself.

Drawing and writing by hand are not merely one mode of representing the world, to be replaced by another framed within binary code. To free-hand is another mode altogether, one enabling us to shape and manipulate our minds as well as the external world, and thus to make of and in the world things that more holistically integrate us as makers with the things we make.*

As Belardi suggests, to draw is to include not only the necessary 3D but the equally requisite fourth and fifth dimensions of time/history and culture/memory.

Aren't those added dimensions ones we want for our children's learning?

* I suspect that here we could invoke Kant, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty and other philosophers, but that would be a bit heavy for a blog post -- unless perhaps we carried on our debate via hand-written notes.

Daniel Rabuzzi is Executive Director at Mouse.