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It was immediately clear that most had pencil-control problems. And the pencils available throughout our school are slimmer than the standard issue back in Canada. No "fat" pencils to be had anywhere.

A colleague opined that perhaps learning to form Korean and/or Chinese characters complicated matters. Perhaps so, but two of the three "Westerners" were similarly challenged and exhibited symptoms so familiar to me; one left-hander who is right-eye dominant, and two right-handers, both of whom are left-eye dominant.

"Penmanship" is quickly becoming a lost art. I insist on legibility but otherwise do not allow printing skill to interfere with language fluency.

But even legibility requires some patience and persistence. The day after our trip to the Shanghai Science & Tech Museum every child was so eager write all they had seen and done that caution was thrown to the winds and their written products were clearly headed toward being unacceptable for reading. Pencils down. I asked how many in the class could write neatly when they had to write quickly. I was astounded that they self-assessed so accurately; only one hand went up. Little Robert proudly and accurately claimed that skill. This boy enjoys copying text with incredible speed and an admirable printing style. The rest of us established a class motto that day: "Good Work, Not Fast Work".

Three months later two bored Korean boys sat far back on our story rug, showing each other how they could twist their thumbs out of joint. Click! There it was again!

I finished the story and changed the subject, asking the two boys to show us what it was they could do. Group reaction to their display was spontaneous; suddenly everyone was showing everyone else what strange things they could do with their fingers, their arms, their shoulders and thumbs. I was obviously very impressed and marvelled at each 'talent'. I cannot swear that every child had an anomaly of this type, but all seemed totally absorbed in demonstration and discussion. One boy was able to wiggle the outside of his ear-lobes - not the entire lobe; it was as if he had a hinge about a centimetre in from the outer edge and could - with some concentrated effort - move only that part of each lobe back and forth!

In my excitement at having this neuro-physiological trait surface again with "dysgraphic" kids (in Asia, no less!), it took time for me to realize that only one boy, sitting right at my knees, was not at all involved; he sat very still, looking down at his hands. Robert. He looked at me as if he expected a rebuke for his short-coming.

"I can't do anything," he said quietly.

"But YOU can print neatly!" I exclaimed.

He brightened immediately. Joy and understanding all around!

So what is this "hyper-mobility-of-joints" that seems to affect our penmanship skill? (And our eye-sight?) I suspect it may be time for some PhD to "discover" it and thoroughly study its implications.