The Relationship of Handwriting to Self-esteem
Believe it or not, there are students who get the impression that the state of their handwriting determines their status as a student. Year after year, I meet children with the self-perception that they were failing, when actually they were often students who were working on or above grade level material. How often a student, more than likely a boy, labors over a written assignment until it suits him, turns it in with an air of happy confidence, only to hear the teacher comment, "My, John. This paper isn't very neat. Couldn't you have done better?" or "John, this paper is a mess! How am I ever going to read it?" Nowhere is John hearing constructive comments. What can a parent do?