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I spent my childhood upsetting people who think there is some moral significance to handwriting. After a chance meeting with a physiotherapist, I finally got d
by richardjdare 7y ago
I spent my childhood upsetting people who think there is some moral significance to handwriting.
After a chance meeting with a physiotherapist, I finally got diagnosed with dyspraxia ("clumsy child syndrome" for us old people) at the age of 16, and managed to get a few grudging apologies from the sarcastic teachers who made my life miserable for so long.
I admire Dijkstra's work, but I do think he'd probably hate me. I spent every morning break for years at primary school doing handwriting exercises like in the article, while the other kids played outside. I never got any better.
Funnily enough since leaving school it hasn't mattered one bit.
- Xelbair 7y agoOver here kids got 'benefits'(extra time for tests etc) for having such disabilities - over-diagnosing was very common. It was a nightmare for people, like me, who genuinely had this syndrome. Every teacher was sure that everyone was faking it and that they were lazy. I would seriously trade all that extra time for at least readable handwriting. I, like you, spent plenty of my time practicing - in my case by transcribing books. Heck, i had once to retake an exam at university - it consisted of me basically slowly taking my original one and writing it cleanly.
- richardjdare 7y agoI left school in '93. Throughout my school career I was the only person I knew who was diagnosed with anything like that. I only got diagnosed after talking to a physio who was treating my brother. Once that happened I started being treated a lot differently, and got to use a nifty little Amstrad[1] laptop to work on. Pity it happened so late, I might have enjoyed school more. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_NC100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_NC100