The problem with you kids today is that you don't write in cursive

[politicat]

62. No, not necessarily d'Nealian.

There are several hybrids. I'm agnostic about which one is "best" -- actually, I don't think any specific handwriting format is "best". My MIL is a lower-grades special Ed teacher who works primarily with reading and writing; she uses just about every system invented, depending on the kid. I think the best system is whichever one is most consistent.

I think that all of the systems we have are relatively poor -- they're all non-intuitive, they're all geared towards bad pencils and wretched paper, they all start with too small details when the early practice should be geared towards clear letter formation, they're all regimented, none of them blend with the others (so a kid who moves from one district's standard to another gets dinged for Doin' It Rong which is just stupid) and they all fail to take into account the 15% of the population who are absolutely backwards because we are left-handed.

The "font" I dislike least is the one Montessori uses -- it works fine as print (minus the joining strokes), it scales well (because Montessori starts with 6" high letters drawn on sand tables) and it lacks the ornate flourishes of Palmer, Spencer and Peterson. It's also highly legible for most Indo-European language speakers, no matter their first language.

I sympathize with your daughter -- half the reason I didn't learn cursive (as part of my lessons) is because we moved frequently when I was a child and the districts weren't in sync. D'Nealian isn't bad if it's a consistent, district-wide, system and kids don't move in and out. It's a terrible system if any of those are only partially true. It's also a poor system if emphasis is placed on speed before precision (and given current standards, it's all about speed) or if there are unrealistic expectations of neatness early on. On the other hand, my nephews' district uses d'Nealian, and it seems to be working for both boys. One's in 1st, one's in 6th; for their ages, they write well and quickly, but they have never known anything else.