Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary Page B

after the third-grade monitors had led the flag salute, changed the date on the calendar, fed the hamster, and done all the housekeeping chores that third-grade monitors do in the morning, Mrs. Leeper faced her class and said, “Today is going to be a happy day.”
    The third grade looked hopeful.
    â€œToday we take a big step in growing up,” said Mrs. Leeper. “We are going to learn cursive handwriting. We are going to learn to make our letters flow together.” Mrs. Leeper made flow sound like a long, long word as she waved her hand in a graceful flowing motion.
    She calls that exciting, thought Maggie, slumping in her chair.
    â€œHow many of you have ridden on a roller coaster?” asked Mrs. Leeper. Half the members of the class raised their hands. Mrs. Leeper wrote on the chalkboard:

    â€œMany letters start up slowly, just like a roller coaster, and then drop down,” she said, and she traced over the first stroke of each letter with colored chalk. Then she went on to demonstrate how the roller coaster climbed almost straight up:

    After the paper monitor passed out paper, the class practiced, not whole letters but roller-coaster strokes:

    Maggie did as she was told until she grew bored and began to draw one long roller-coaster line that rose and fell, turned and twisted, and rose again. So many of the class needed help with their strokes that Mrs. Leeper did not get around to Maggie.
    The next day, after strokes, the class practiced whole letters, some with loops that went up, some with loops that went down. This was difficult. The third grade frowned, worried, struggled, and asked Mrs. Leeper whether they were doing it right. Then they learned to connect letters with straight lines. Maggie went on drawing roller coasters until Mrs. Leeper noticed.

    â€œWhy, Maggie,” she said, “why haven’t you been working on your loops and lines?”
    â€œI am working,” said Maggie, “on roller coasters.”
    Mrs. Leeper looked thoughtfully at Maggie, who tried to look happy. “Roller coasters are not cursive,” said the teacher.
    â€œI know,” agreed Maggie, “but I don’t need cursive. I use our computer.”
    â€œMaggie, I think you had better stay after school so we can have a little talk,” said Mrs. Leeper.
    â€œI have to catch my bus,” said Maggie with her sweetest smile.

    That afternoon, Maggie examined cursive writing wherever she found it. “Why does your writing on the grocery list lean over backward?” she asked her mother. “Mrs. Leeper says letters should lean forward as if they were walking against the wind.”
    â€œI’m left-handed, and my teachers didn’t show me how to turn my paper,” answered Mrs. Schultz.
    â€œAnd what are those little circles floating around?” asked Maggie.
    Her mother laughed. “When I was in junior high, girls often made circles instead of dots over their i ’s. We thought it was artistic or something. I don’t really remember.”
    That evening, Maggie stood at her father’s side as he wrote a letter on the computer. When he pulled the paper out of the printer, he picked up a pen and wrote at the bottom:

    â€œWhat does that say?” asked Maggie.
    â€œThat’s how I sign my name,” said her father. “Sydney Schultz.”
    â€œYou didn’t close your loops,” Maggie pointed out. “You are supposed to close loops on letters that have pieces that hang down.” She had learned a thing or two in spite of herself.
    â€œOops,” said Mr. Schultz, and he closed his loops.

Chapter 3
    M aggie began to enjoy cursive time. She experimented with letters leaning over backward and decorated with little circles, the way her mother dotted her i ’s. She wrote messy g ’s with long straight tails, the way her father made his y ’s.
    â€œWhy, Maggie,” said Mrs. Leeper. “I find your cursive very