Just got caught up in a discussion on someone else’s blog about whether neat handwriting was important or not? Well, of course there is the option of typing today, but neatness is important. Also put in that I have used the Montessori Method, using 3D letters to introduce letters, so that writing those letters with a pencil can come well, and later. So that whatever problems the child is having are resolved. The child learns the letters without the frustration of writing (in the case where that was a problem) and then learns to write easily. This is an example of innovative pedagogy — using a different method with a child who has “a learning disability.” And everything is resolved. But see, it first took faith that the problem could be resolved. I have faith my students can learn. I love to tutor 7 year olds brought to me because they are having trouble proceeding. Much better to help a child over a problem than to wait a couple more years and diagnose them. Two years of frustration and then a label that explains? What good is that? No, let’s find the problem dissolving now! But underlying is the faith that there is a solution, or healing, or method.