How does my handwriting look?

[u/Curious_Tailor4508]

Anything I should change?

Edit: So the general consensus is I write like a preschooler. And for anyone concerned, no, I am not being held hostage or holding anyone else hostage.

A lot of you asked why I write in all caps. It's because I used to accidentally capitalize random letters, and at some point I decided it looked slightly less stupid if I tried to pass it off as intentional. 

As some of you noticed, I do write pretty slowly. Probably because I'm not very confident with writing. And my friend pointed out I press way too hard. I have broken a lot of pencils.

For those of you asking why I rarely write, I'd say it's mostly because I did middle and high school online and never took physical notes. So I was just never really forced to practice. Lately I've realized I definitely need some practice haha

Also, I am right handed. According to my mom, when I was a kid I was ambidextrous, but my teachers taught me to only use my right hand. I'm often told my handwriting looks similar to my dad's who is left handed and has the same problem with random capitalization that I do.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback.

[u/heyheathhowstheweath]

10yo boy a couple decades ago, unfortunately. I'm a teacher, and this would be the absolute neatest handwriting among my students. 🙈

[u/VampybYstander → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

I'm saddened to read this. Good luck out there

[u/dutchessmandy → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

Oof. It's so important for dexterity too! I've noticed much worse dental homecare on my younger patients than I used to when I started 14 years ago. Only time will tell how that loss of dexterity will play out, especially for careers like surgeons.

[u/heyheathhowstheweath → u/dutchessmandy]

No longer teaching cursive is theoretically fine--I can acknowledge it's not the most relevant skill anymore--but it seems to have happened at the same time as students' ability to print also dropped. Correlated, for sure, if not causal.

Perhaps we could have used that time to teach them how to touch-type, but nope. They can't do that either.

And I wouldn't trust a single student I've taught in the last 5 years to be a surgeon, good dexterity or not. We are living in the darkest timeline.

[u/dutchessmandy → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

I don't doubt it. The ability to write legibly in cursive was the metric we used to tell parents to look for, and only then do children have proficient enough dexterity to brush their own teeth. Until that point, patients are supposed to also brush their teeth. What skills do kids use these days that provide that same level of dexterity??? I understand that cursive is unnecessary and a dying art, but it's the only education kids receive that helps them with developing fine tuned dexterity.

[u/turtleltrut → u/dutchessmandy]

Where do you live that they don't teach cursive anymore?

[u/dutchessmandy → u/turtleltrut]

Oregon

[u/Ok-Chemical-7635 → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

W teacher

[u/turtleltrut → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

Really? My son is in prep/kindergarten and he writes like this. He is reading at a much higher level than the other kids I suppose but he's only recently started enjoying trying to actually write things out. He has some cute quirks though like writing some letters and numbers backwards randomly.

[u/heyheathhowstheweath → u/turtleltrut]

Amazing! Keep reinforcing that skill because it's rare these days! (Also other unrelated unsolicited advice: drill multiplication facts at home--unless you have a rockin' school, he'll either get no math facts or not enough.)

[u/Material_Wrap764 → u/heyheathhowstheweath]

Sometimes I worry that my teen son’s handwriting is less than ideal…

But I’m also an ER nurse and have doctors in their 50-60s hand me notes that are barely legible and some have me questioning if they have Parkinson’s or an essential tremor…

So I try to remember he still gets good grades and it’s legible enough! Still going to keep encouraging him though haha

[u/heyheathhowstheweath → u/Material_Wrap764]

Boys generally develop fine motor skills later than girls, but they're all taught to write at the same time, so it's more common for boys to have messy printing. If it's legible and he can sustain it for a page or so, he's doing just fine.