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Handwriting, "everyone's art," is an indispensable skill. The roots of our present forms of penmanship are traced. When and which initial style to teach children, especially the dyslexic or learning disabled, are discussed.The need for a good instrument to evaluate handwriting to prevent perpetuation of illegibilities or to determine if speed is rapid enough to meet the writer's purpose is paramount. A new diagnostic tool, the Children's Handwriting Evaluation Scale (CHES) and its college counterpart are detailed. The CHES also provides a projective scoring key based on graphoanalytic interpretations.