while i was a student teacher at a pretty average high school in the western suburbs, there were HEAPS of kids in years 8, 9 and 10 that had really bad handwriting, grammar, spelling.. everything! ive been told by experienced teachers that "it is no longer the high school teachers responsibility to focus teaching proper handwriting! that was supposed to be the primary teachers job! and if they havent gotten it by high school they arent ever going to get it!" - i guess thats just the reality of things now. i kinda agree with that because we teachers have heaps of things to get through besides dealing with student behaviour, and we shouldnt have to fix up the mess that the primary school teachers should have dealt with much earlier on! part of this can come down to the fact that they may have grown up using a keyboard to write up assignments etc, therefore the only time they actually practice hand writing is during class! dont know about you, but im 27 now... and i still practice pen techniques to make sure my running writing is up to scratch. outside of class assignments, all students have got in terms of writing anything down is in the form of mobile txt language as well as email/bebo/chat language, neither of which encourages proper spelling. the fallout of using a keyboard all the time = the crap spelling, crap grammar, crap handwriting. and on top of that, they are oblivious to the fact that not everyone writes that way and accepts that people dont like to read things in those styles!