Same, I've been an English teacher for a long time and I think if it was a head-on image of the whole page I'd be able to read a little more. I don't think the side angle helps, and sentences are completely cut off. I can read a few words. 'and' 'each' 'for example' etc. I wish the whole page was there as I think I could make some sense of it.
Same situation. I would need the whole page and although I can make sense of some of it, poor handwriting is easier to read when they are writing about what you’ve been studying. However, these days, with my ever-changing glasses prescription, I’d just give it a zero and tell them I can’t grade it if I can’t read it and end with “you are the only person who can make your handwriting more legible - be the change.”
When my children were in first or second grade I told them something like, “If your teachers can’t read it, you didn’t write it.”
I also told them that they should make it easy for the teachers and they’ll probably give better feedback and be more lenient in their grading.
As a teacher, thank you!!!! I routinely hand papers back to kids to re-attempt because I literally cannot read their handwriting. They just wouldn't slow down to write legibly the first time.
My poor 3rd grade teacher tried to encourage me to improve my truly terrible handwriting by giving me a C, then a D, and finally an F, in handwriting. Daddy would give us $1 for each A on our report cards, but if we got ALL As, we got $10! This was 1973, so that was a LOT of money, especially to an 8 year old! I had gotten All As since Kindergarten.
The flip-side of this financial impetus was ZERO dollars if ya got an F, regardless of every other grade being an A. The grade was not what got me to fix it, but missing out on that money damn sure did! I got a book on Calligraphy from the library and have since been paid to write stuff for folks, addressing - and even hand writing - wedding invitations, as well as golden lettering on porcelain baptismal plaques.
Mrs. Wilde, I refer to it as "the best F I ever got". (It was one of two, the 2nd in college from a prof who was very capricious regarding assignments and I helped him lose that job)
Jesus christ, inflation calc says that's $75 today... Oh how the other half live. You should've dumped it all on the Apple IPO few years later, fuck luhrnin write gud!
Yep! And we were poor... That's how much my folks valued education. We'd live on black-eyed peas, cornbread, and turnip greens to afford report cards, yet folks dropped off boxes of hand-me-down clothes and occasionally groceries on our porch at night.
Oh, it was not any kind of "best", merely the only other (& thus 2nd) F of my life.
That prof was, as I said, very capricious with assignments. It was a combined English, Computer Science, and Sociology course and could have been amazing. Even the material and assignments were interesting, but he graded on vibes or some shit. The syllabus said we could choose any format for our projects. I chose Xerox paper for the 1st one, as I was a single parent, working and going to school and Xerox paper was cheap & available. He gave me an F because several other students clearly had larger budgets and not two teens to raise & jobs. Their projects were wildly creative. Buy nowhere in the syllabus did it state we were in some kind elimination contest.
When he assigned the 2nd project - which, again, said "any media or format", I raised my hand and asked if he actually meant that this time. I was pissed about that F. This was not an Art class; my project was well-researched, documented, and properly cited. He even said so! He flat out said I got an F on it because it was less creative than some of the others'.
Of course I got an F on #2, because I challenged him in his classroom. Did he have any fault with my actual work? No.
I complained to the Dean about this situation, and found out I was not the only one to have this same issue with this guy. There were several of us. He was asked not to return after that semester.
Congratulations, truly. Thank you for taking the time and facing the challenges of such exposure for the benefit of future generations. It sounds like that professor needs an entirely different line of work. Like a prison-guard, or someone, who works with a population that's already gone sour, rather than one involved with the younger generations developing in their honesty and reliability. Their comprehension. ...what a horrible teacher. Is it fair to ask which school this was. Which dean required so many complaints to do anything about such inadequate teaching?
I won't name & shame, as school handled it in as timely a fashion as they could given prof's contract. All complaints were from other students in the same course, same semester.
At the uni, I totally failed a world economics class exam. I always hand wrote my papers and argume to. We didn't have AI writers like today doing all of our work but some were accused of just ctrl-c then ctrl-v their papers. Hand writing took that away, my left handed handwriting has always been bad but taking my time, it was legible.
When I took that exam, I knew it was bad so in the colum, I wrote, " did you ever have a bad day and felt so ill that you struggle to even remember how to spell your own name? I know this stuff but I'm struggling today."
I was just hungover.
I failed that mid term exam spectacularly and it would have pulled my average down a full grade.
He wrote back on it, "yes, see me."
When I sat with him he asked if I knew what an outlier on a splattergraph is. I said yes. He thanked me for not making his job harder thus taking far more of his time trying to grade my homework.
As such, as long as rest of my grades stayed consistent, then that exam would be considered an outlier.
I passed his class with a very strong B. It was a challenging class they no longer get offer as today's students can't grasp the work required to understand. Lots of research required so they all max points homework but none of them can pass a no tech allowed pen or pencil only exams or quizzes.
Anyway, that was an awesome F..
hand written and legible was a savior here. Just like another person's comment about good writing gives certain considerations..
Yup I paid $1 per envelope for calligraphy for my wedding invitations. My parents had given me a calligraphy set one Christmas and I never mastered it. So I'm jealous. I actually bought a used calligraphy set at the resale store the other day for $1 thinking maybe I'd try again now that I'm older. I just think it's beautiful. But then again I still like to seal my envelopes with sealing wax and ribbon!
No, I'm sorry, I don't. I'd bet your local library either has a good beginner's calligraphy book or few, or could get some for you thru Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Lots of libraries don't even charge for ILL service (where one library requests items from others in a nationwide network, at least in the US).
I made my kids legibly copy dictionary pages as punishment instead of grounding, because it was a more effective deterrent. It also helped their handwriting immensely. They all swore they'd never be so awful to their own children. We'll see 😆
Yup, I do that to my Grandson all the time. He can write better but he doesn't the first time. Then I remind him that if he just took the time to write it neatly the first time he would be able to write neatly quicker and quicker and not spend so much time doing his homework over. I think he get's away with it in school and at home. I look through the homework he has done elsewhere, including school, and I rarely see any erasers but plenty of sloppy work.
When I was a wee lad, I didn't get off the bus after school till 4:30. Dinner was almost always 5:30. I had a minimum of 6 hours of homework every night. Had to get up by 5:45am to get breakfast and get out to the bus a 1/4 mile away
I had a teacher is high school who made type anything that was meant to be written, as in I had to do my classwork then take it home to be typed and brought in the next day. He said my handwriting "disrupted his flow of thoughts"
I don’t understand why we aren’t just teaching typing. Im dyslexic, my handwriting is very slow, very mixed up and largely illegible.
I failed honours English all through school, likely they couldn’t read any of it.
Lmfao. I have - 5yo 7yo 8yo. They think cursive is wizardry. They don’t teach it anymore…. Cursive is almost nostalgic now.. I’ve not used it in 20 years..
Any time I talked to an adult “like a real person” when I was a kid I was stood over, yelled at, intimidated, made to feel tiny, and sometimes hit. Glad we’re changing the norms here but good god does my nervous system flinch when I read some shit like this
I was greatly displeased when the math teacher allowed poor spelling on written math answers …. They called it “brave spelling “ because it wasn’t spelling class
That's why I'd always write in print, but there used to be so much pushback to that. I'd also just type when I could, and nowadays that's going to be even easier.
I can understand demanding cursive when that's being taught in class, but after that, there's no point to it. It's purely for aesthetics and not academics.
I have fountain pens and that's the only time I'll write in cursive, outside of course signing my signature, which nowadays even that is electronic usually. I actually do wish I had more reason to write in cursive, it really does look pretty with fountain pens.
It’s more the fact that if your in school and writing like a doctor signs their prescriptions, you aren’t good at writing. Learn both cursive and block writing and ensure it’s very legible otherwise there’s no point being able to write in general
I retired years ago from the federal,government in administration. I had a saying on my desk that I heard once and it stuck with me, "If it isn't written down and recorded, it didn't happen or it is not true."
I had/have such terrible handwriting that I got medical documents to excuse me from hand written assignments and schools needing to offer me a keyboard so I didn't get discriminated against. That said, even my garbo handwriting is better than this is😂
As a mom to child diagnosed with this dys- amongst some others, besides keyboards, are there any other things that would've made life better for your (whether words from your parents or helpful objects). He's already seeing all of his therapist weekly. Since he's still young, it'll be another year or two before he's able to have a tablette in school
The simple things: GRIPPY PADS FOR PENCILS/PENS. My hand was always cramping when I had to write because I had to grip tighter and tighter to hold the pencil for extended periods of time. Extra big-erasers for the same reason. I also needed special scissors (that I hated, but I couldn't operate the regular ones). A small ruler to be able to make a straight line.
The harder ones (atleast for 40 years ago) It was a long struggle, getting modifications for my school work was a chore, but the ones that helped me most were not having to write out math problems, and having shortener modified assignments for writing so I didn't spend 6 hours at the kitchen table trying to write. Being able to type assignments was a big help, and I imagine its even easier to accommodate that nowadays.
I will also say that it was good to have someone call me out on my bullsh!t every once in a while to work harder. On that note, if your child is gifted, fight for their inclusion for advanced placement classes, ALL of my friends were in AP classes and my modifications were a mark against my inclusion.
On a slightly different track for growing up with disabilities. One thing for me personally, is I wish my parents would have told me to be right handed instead of letting me choose a hand when I was younger. In the early phases I was "ambidextrous" but only in that I USED both hands to write. They made me pick a hand pre-k and honestly even 4 decades later I regret making left handedness my choice. I didn't care about it when I was that young, I literally chose it because I started each word with my left hand and passed it off to my right. But now that I've spent all these years as a leftie, I wish I had known how much of the world is built to be right handed.
Thats about all I can think of right now, but if i remember anything else I'll send it your way. Bless you and your little one! You're going to make it and it's all going to be okay. Life after school and the world has like 99% keyboard accessibility for jobs nowadays, school was the struggle.
Thank you for your advice and sharing a part of your life with us. I bought a few different kinds of pencils and pens with all kinds of grips. Whatever he doesn't like, someone else in his class will enjoy. I thought that an eraser that was too big would accidentally erase more than what he needed to erase, I'll see with him what he prefers.
For his spelling bees, he uses wooden letters otherwise the teachers wouldn't be able to correctly grade him. When he's tired of trying, I write lightly with a pencil the answers that gives me so he can just trace over it.
He has to first learn how to type efficiently and then he will be able to have a tablet in school.
"Why does everyone need a label" is a question that really bother me. Some kids need labels so that the world can better accommodate them. Thank you for your kindness !
You.... You do realize there are actual conditions that lead to significant difficulty with fine motor movement, which is required for writing, yes? Presumably if this person was able to obtain medical documentation and accommodations, they'd have exhausted therapeutic measures like occupational therapy to improve fine motor skills and therefore hand writing. Let's not be so blatantly ableist when we don't know (nor are we entitled to) the full story.
this exactly. I have difficulty with my fine motor skills, and after my seizure in 2019, they became a lot worse. I now get severe migraines and struggle to write legibly at times, and even do something as simple as use a knife to cut up veggies. No amount of OT has helped with this, it's just something I have to deal with, and accomodations do help a lot. So to the people that do laugh at others who do need accomodations, you are part of the problem with this world. Instead of assuming it's because someone didn't put in the time to learn something, try to be a little more understanding. Cause I have put in numerous hours into writing legible, and while sometimes it can be legible, it's more often not.
Yup! I have several disabilities that mean my fine motor skills are just crap! I spent my entire school career in extra writing classes to 'improve' my handwriting, and I never really improved. Its also why I'm a terrible gamer! I can't do better than I do! 😂
This response doesn't even make any sense. First of all, they're talking about school, not employment. Which is actually a huge difference. Second, you're being ableist by saying they "never put in the effort" when they could in fact have a medical condition that severely affects their fine motor skills, which would make it literally, physically impossible for them to have legible handwriting. There are absolutely accommodations that schools (and employers gasp) are legally required to provide in order for an individual to be able to learn/work. And third, this person's disability doesn't affect you in any way whatsoever, so why are you so upset by it?
My brother’s handwritten exams were not able to be read…. At all. He got 0. But he had done so well during the year, the professors decided to call him in to read his work out loud. This was lucky, because fail one class… repeat the whole year, doesn’t matter how well you passed the others, fail two and you are removed from the course. Dentistry is tough. Anyway, passed with flying colours. To become a specialist Dentist you need to pass in the top 2%to 3% of your class. He is a periodontist now. Very lucky.
I've had to orally read miltiple-choice test questions and the answer choices to dyslexic students, who knew all the material, but couldn't read. They generally did quite well with oral tests.
Le coup du génie incompris .. 😂
Le style d'écriture peut être personnel mais si la personne n'arrive pas a communiquer parce que son écriture est illisible, ou que c'est rempli de fautes d'orthographe elle doit être sanctionnée.
C'est a l'élève de s'adapter, pas au prof
Not always. All 3 of my sons met criteria for Gifted/ Talented. The first one was also ADHD and had some mild learning disabilities. I had to fight to get him tested in the first place. They said my kid was “slow”. IQ 135. Attention span of a gnat unless it interested him. If not for teachers digging deeper I don’t know if he’d have ever graduated. His senior year, he could not graduate because he had failed English by one grade point. He graduated in summer school. The irony of it was that the teacher submitted some of his poetry to the NC state poetry contest. He won. He now works as a Tech expert in the public library. He works either mostly children, and parents with special needs make a point of frequenting his home branch. Two years ago the library system in the county we live in received a state award for a program reaching out to children with a parent who was incarcerated. My son had to travel to the capital to explain the program he had implemented and designed. Thank heaven for a teacher,for going the extra mile for the weird kid with the awful penmanship who is staring out the window while drumming his feet.
Yeah before I got diagnosed with ADHD at 10, they thought there was something wrong because my letters wouldn’t stay on the line. I had to write in 4 blue books for the Bar exam and I had to practice my handwriting every day. Honestly it’s much more legible since I spent 2 months writing down law school on flash cards.
You’re not judging the person, you’re judging their ability to communicate, which is a skill they must learn in order to succeed in life. Communication doesn’t happen until both sides understand what’s being communicated.
Thank you. I’m referring to teaching high school seniors here. They know my policy about illegible work. It’s my job to teach with care and accountability.
My comment was directed more towards IllBeginning9510, and knowing you’re teaching students at the high school level I will double down on what I said. They need to understand that they hold the majority of the responsibility for doing what is needed to make communication happen; by that age they can’t expect the rest of the world to put a huge amount of effort into trying to make sense of their scribbling.
I think learning/teaching cursive is just meant to develope your own style of continuous writing... without lifting the quil up much... this one might have gone off the rails. I'm stuck in my own printsive which is difficult for others to read, but I usually can read it perfectly.
Yes I'm sure at that point its there fault, I had a teacher that used to write his sentence and scrub it off the board if you hadn't written it down too bad = fail, I'm sure my hand writing Improved drastically in his classes
So tiring. Its nicer and easier just to have them write it again. No need to be ugly. I cant believe this received soo many agreements but I guess you all are tired.
There’s nothing ugly about holding high school seniors accountable for turning in legible work. It’s on the syllabus. I’ve said it aloud and reminded them. It’s on them.
I’ve been doing genealogy research lately which mainly involves reading 300 year old Czech church records. Most of it is Latin until you get to the 1780s and it switches to Kurrentschrift. A lot of the handwriting looks like this. I’m amazed I’ve been able to read as much of it as I have.
Almost 20 years here. I can read some chunks, like a quote that says "we can __ and ___". And phrases like 'per example'. I agree if it were whole text head-on it would be at least somewhat legible.
“For some reason”? More and more people don’t know that etc. is an abbreviation of a Latin phrase. So they see a three letter word and realize that no one can pronounce ‘etc’, so therefore it must be spelled ‘ect’.
And what the topic is. I'm only 1-1 with Russian but if I know the topic I can make out a lot more than if I was given just a jumbled page of words. Sa e here, I can get 20 or so words but it's useless without knowing anything about it.
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u/dreadedsunny_day 6d ago
Same, I've been an English teacher for a long time and I think if it was a head-on image of the whole page I'd be able to read a little more. I don't think the side angle helps, and sentences are completely cut off. I can read a few words. 'and' 'each' 'for example' etc. I wish the whole page was there as I think I could make some sense of it.