There was a serious shortage of teachers in the middle of the last century. At that time, after a career in journalism, Donna Reid Connell was persuaded to be the teacher of a one-room rural school. She had no teaching credentials and no experience in the field. During the next twenty-five years she then taught at all levels, preschool through college, and along the way she acquired several credentials and degrees. However, Dr. Connell still looks back at what she calls the most significant teaching experience of her life, the one-room rural school.

The problem lies with the handwriting techniques taught..