Comment by hangonhn

Rather than argue about this, perhaps it may be better to see if you can get your son to be interested in practicing calligraphy, where the whole point of the exercise is to write in beautiful way. Otherwise, you're trying to win an argument about something that is often tangential to another goal.

You and I both have terrible handwriting. In my life, it hasn't been a hindrance to my work as a software engineer so maybe your son has a point. However, I do agree that doing things well has merit but maybe reframing it will get you farther along this goal. And lastly, maybe you can achieve the same goal through other means? Perhaps in playing an instrument or practicing some other skill. I think the value you want to teach your son is practicing something and doing it well. It doesn't need to be handwriting.