Teachers in the school setting need to emphasize quality handwriting across the curriculum. Quality handwriting means that the written content is easy to read in either manuscript or cursive form. Handwriting achievement can be assessed, but not compared to the precision of assessing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Handwriting achievement can be assessed in degrees from being legible to being illegible. Thus, a rubric, carefully developed and designed, can be used to ascertain the quality of handwriting achievement. This paper first provides a brief history of handwriting instruction and then presents the author's personal history of learning handwriting skills in elementary school in Kansas. It also discusses handwriting instruction during the author's parents' school years. The paper outlines 10 criteria that need to be followed by the teacher in teaching/learning situations in handwriting. It also cites these items to notice in improving handwriting quality: (1) how much progress does the student show over previous performance in handwriting; (2) how well is the student monitoring his/her handwriting quality; (3) how much effort does the student show in desiring to improve handwriting skills; (4) how much writing does the student do in functional situations so that others may read what has been written; and (5) how much conscientious practice is the learner putting into improving individual letter formation, staying on the line when writing, etc. (Contains several handwriting illustrations and 6 references.) (NKA)