Obviously, access to computers in general and the Internet in particular is a godsend, and the sooner such access is universal, the better. But I was intrigued by Layton's article, in which he wrote about what happened recently when his school lost its Internet connection.

Suddenly, an ecology class being broadcast to his rural school went off the air, students felt unable to write their papers, and teachers were in a quandary without (computerized interactive whiteboards). Layton lamented the cloud of helplessness that settled over the school and harked back to "a time when learning and communication had a more meaningful, personal touch."

The episode reminded me of a column I wrote several years back, titled "The Lost Art of Handwriting." That column was picked up by a number of IDG publications around the world, and I can't think of anything I've written that drew a more global response from readers who identified with my experience. Here's a lightly edited excerpt, offered as a toast to Layton's piece:

I have a 19-year-old son who is absolutely brilliant. He finished high school with a 4.0 grade-point average, scored a 1500 on the SAT, and was accepted for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy. Yet this brilliant young man has the handwriting of a 4-year-old. It's humiliating. And why is this the case? Because he grew up in front of a keyboard. Virtually everything he ever did involving the written word was typed.

If there's anything good to say about his handwriting at all, it's that it's not quite as horrible as the "handwriting" of my 14-year-old son, who has even less experience away from a computer and whose scrawl looks like he was holding the pen between his toes. With frostbite.