being taught to write by somebody who didn't understand how to teach a left-hander to write.

So very This, with most things, eh? Especially in the dark ages of my yout. What a pain to be so 'different' and yet, really not different at all.

My stepmother positively despaired trying to teach me to knit. I swear, I became ambidexterous in self defense.

Forget trying to use left handed scissors. I am borg.

I hate writing anything by hand. Filling out forms and signing my name are about the only times I do it. I much prefer to run envelopes through a laser printer than address an envelope by hand.

I print, when I'm actually trying to be legible. Scrawled notes involve something like cursive, but much harder to read. My printing is much nicer.

I have very nice handwriting as well, thanks to Mrs. Cune, my second grade teacher. She would make me stay in at recess and rewrite my work. I would hand it in early, and she would accept it, then wait until it was time to go to recess and call me up to rewrite. I learned quickly.

[link] Huh. D'Nealian looks more like many of us are saying we're now doing.

This just seems weird to me. Only 15% of the next batch of college freshmen use cursive? Wow.

Doesn't seem weird to me. I HATED writing anything longer than my name in cursive, and practiced legible printing in school until I got my speed to equal writing in longhand.

D'Nealian was what we were taught up to second/third where they transitioned to cursive.

That's exactly it! Folk get taught how to do that?

I think I started doing it accidentally, right about 5 minutes after I stopped dotting my i's with little flowers in middle school.

I have been told I write "calligraphically". Interestingly, my handwriting is MUCH better when I write with an ink pen than when I write with a ballpoint. MUCH. My normal handwriting is a mix of cursive and printing - some letters connect and some don't.

flea is me.

I definitely got the old circle-and-stick, which I could tell was stupid even at the time.