Editing The Pen Addict 193/transcript (section)

== Freakonomics Book ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Many, many years ago, a book was written called Freakonomics, which is an incredibly interesting book, which I recommend to people, by the way. If you've not read Freakonomics, you should read Freakonomics. There's a lot of just really interesting tidbits about the way to think about the world, so I would recommend that to people. But they have a podcast that they've been doing for many years called Freakonomics Radio. And actually, recently, Idina has gotten heavily into this show. I suggested to her that it might be something she would enjoy because she likes shows like this. And they did an episode, I think maybe this week, called Who Needs Handwriting?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it was like late last week.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That feels like it falls right within our wheelhouse and even features a little bit about CW Pencil Enterprise right at the end of the show. And they're going to be on the next episode as well, which I thought was quite cool. But basically, the premise of this episode is looking at, in the modern world of devices and laptops and phones and all the things that we have these days, should handwriting still be taught to children in school, especially cursive? Now, I want to preface the conversation we're about to have by stating that it is very important for us and everybody listening and everybody who's listened to this and has complained that we need to remember our bias.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's it. Yeah, we are Big Pen, as Mr. Dubner refers to. Well, we're not Big Pen. I know, but we're in that category.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But yeah, we are in the sympathizer category of wanting handwriting to be around and still talk to kids because we love our pens. I think that that is very important to remember. And I actually think that the show itself presents quite a balanced view. There are some people in it that have questionable methods in certain scenarios. They point out some interesting facts, which I think we cannot deny, where a lot of the research into handwriting being a good thing is funded by pen companies. And me and you have spoken about this before. The BIC thing, was it like Fight for Your Right or something like that? Correct. Correct. Me and you have laughed about that in the past. The fact that it was BIC feeling threatened, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. So that's my second biggest issue with the episode. Is the repeated, you know, like when he talks to Caroline, like, do you know who funds these studies? Well, his primary guest, he fails to repeatedly mention that Miss Truebeck is selling a book.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. About how handwriting is dying and how you should move on to other things. So she has her own bias as well. So she's he repeatedly brings up the BIC part and the do you know who funds these studies start? He says it like three times. Do you know who funds these studies? Except not one time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What I don't like is he then refers to her later as a handwriting scholar. Yeah. Which makes it seem like she's an expert in handwriting. But no, she's writing a book about why it should go away.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. Which is her whole reason for being on this show. And he fails to mention that three times. Right. He doesn't listen to mention that at all. So that was my my second biggest problem. My primary issue was Miss Truebeck. Her opinion is coming from a place of privilege. So let me explain that a little bit. She her the kind of the intro to her is she had she noticed her second grade child having difficulty with writing letters backwards. And she felt that the kid was not getting a fair shake in school. The kid himself felt he was doing bad in school. And she actually pulled him out of that school and moved him into another school.