Sorry I took so long to reply! I'm still not used to Lemmy. :P

That was an excellent answer. I imagine it's further compounded by how kids are sorted into grades, with someone being born very late to the grade's cut-off having a disadvantage to someone born many months earlier/at the start of the cut-off.

From what you wrote, I'm almost persuaded to think that it's something kids should be taught in school, but far later. I'm back on the boat of having calligraphy classes offered in high school as electives. The trouble is, once I suggest that, I feel like it's setting myself up to be argued into having it at a much younger age and as a mandatory part of education, which puts us right back into the problems you listed out. :(

Was this something specific to cursive?

I'm not surprised that kids would've had awful experiences, especially because this is a skill that takes time to develop, and time is often the thing in the shortest supply when it comes to teaching kids.

But you wrote your post like there was something particularly unique to the awful experiences had with learning cursive writing. I wasn't expecting that. Does it have to do with how you can 'get away' with messing handwriting in math or even in English, but when you're being graded on the appearance of cursive letters, any fine motor skills a child is struggling with gets piled on?

I skimmed some of the posts and saw ADHD mentioned a few times - damn, we're crocheting ourselves a new stereotype. 😝

I have a friend who crochets a lot, and while we were at her house, she'd be working on a project of some kind. Eventually I got curious, so she handed me an old ball of yarn and showed me the double-stitch. That's still the only one I know. I've made several blankets using just that one over and over and over.

I've learned how to change colours okay, so I can make patterns by strategically swapping to different yarn, but if I really want a certain pattern, I just crochet over the surface with another round of that double-stitch. It's like a 3D thing. :D

And yes, it does keep my hands busy!