What to do when you can't read their handwriting?

[Anonymous]

Tell them to type it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell them that they need to redo it.

This. Tell them to re-write. I guess they’re on their way to medical school.

But also, it’s an art to be able to read handwritings. I used to be better at it 30 years ago, when I was at school and university, and used to be exposed to many different handwritings (and we all wrote in cursive back then) than I am now when 99.9% of what I see and read is print.

It’s 30 years for me too but I never got the hang of cursive so I never used it after 4th grade. I have no disabilities but I could never write fast enough to take notes. I would miss letters, just make a mess. I wish I had gone to school with computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach seniors in an AP class that involves a lot of writing, but for which it's not practical to have students type their responses.
I usually have one kid a year out of 100+ whose handwriting is essentially illegible. This year it's an epidemic.
Time to look for another line of work?

Why isn't typing practical? My DS has dysgraphia and his handwriting is totally illegible, even to himself. If he concentrates on the handwriting to make it semi-legible, it's much harder to concentrate on the content. He types everything (he has a 504 in case teachers resist, but really there's no reason anyone for whom handwriting is hard can't type).

This. People do not understand dysgraphia. For my kid, all the writing practice in the world didn't help. We had to deal with so many ignorant teachers who would openly criticize my for not teaching my kid to write. My kid did more writing practice than any kid in the state and it was a stupid waste of time. Dysgraphia is not simply an issue of hand strength or practice. People will never understand this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly there is a difference between kids with disabilities that impact their writing and kids that are just sloppy. Most kids with disability related handwriting deficits will have a 504 or an IEP. I’m sure the teacher understands those kids must be accommodated and it isn’t laziness or sloppy work because they are going too fast.

I do think kids without an IEP/504 should have reasonable expectations about legibility.

This is not true. I have twins, both have dysgraphia but only the twin with other disabilities got an iep. The school system wouldn't do anything for the other twin.

[Anonymous]

Redo it so it's legible. Why is this even a question? That's what you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Redo it so it's legible. Why is this even a question? That's what you do.

Or you type it and print it out.

About half of my mother’s side of the family is left handed including me. When my grandmother lived in Canada as a French Canadian, the English started in their bossy ways and banned French from being spoken in schools. (Colony). It didn’t matter to them that half the parents and some kids didn’t speak English. Also if you were left handed you were banned from using it. You had to write with your right hand. They would tie my grandmother’s left hand behind her back.

We’ve evolved from that luckily. Now people want to stop progress by having an old script like cursive make a comeback. It’s taught for a little while in 3rd grade but quickly dismissed. Not being able to write legibly is not always a disability. Just like not being able to draw well is not a disability.