As someone who has tutored a number of dyslexic young people, I have seen this pattern repeat itself over and over. The teachers at most schools just don't get

As someone who has tutored a number of dyslexic young people, I have seen this pattern repeat itself over and over. The teachers at most schools just don't get it. They seem to think that trying to manipulate children emotionally with "interventions" and the like will magically fix their awkward/sloppy/inverted handwriting (letter inversion, as others here may have mentioned, is a classic dyslexia symptom). It's cruel and unnecessary, and reflects a lack of competence. Having said that, I mostly disagree with this writer, though I understand her reaction as a parent. In the course of my training, I was told that handwriting, and cursive handwriting in particular, are important to learn because when done correctly, they reinforce the brain's neural pathways associated with particular letters and sounds (1). For example, we had students stand at a whiteboard and write large cursive letters while reading/saying them at the same time (2). The acronym was V.A.K.: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic. The idea was to associate lots of information (from the eyes, ears and muscles) in the brain with the different letters and their sounds. Of course, most schools don't do that, so the lesson of this article seems to be this: teaching handwriting to kids is bad for them if you're doing it wrong. (1) I'm not a neurologist, so this might be the wrong way to describe it. (2) The students worked one-on-one in private rooms with tutors that they trusted, NEVER in open classrooms. This is an important point. (edited for formatting)