My Take | There's still a place for pen and paper in education

I don't know whether it's my two teenage kids' fault or that of their school. They hate using pens to write or picking up newspapers, magazines and books to read.

Instead, they prefer to use computers all the time, typing instead of writing, reading online instead of reading from a book or a newspaper.

Their school, an international one, has gone digital as far as possible. It's e-learning multiplied by 10. Even we parents have to go online to check the kids' homework and test scores. Homework, once done, is submitted electronically.

Needless to say, every pupil gets a nice Apple laptop, which is essential for work in class as well. For out-of-school exercises in maths and physics, my wife makes our children go to a website where all the problems are studied, solved and graded electronically.

We have subscribed to for years, but our kids rarely ever touch its magazines. My teenage son is into politics but he won't read a physical newspaper, even though his old man works for one, and reads news only online. I suppose it's a generational thing. I hate reading from news websites, and holding a physical paper in the morning is still a pleasure.

My children's aversion to the use of papers, not just newspapers, I suspect, extends to books. Now, it's not unusual for teenagers not to like reading.