Though my penmanship has always been sub par (and getting worse with age), it wasn't for lack of teaching/practice.
Still remember Mrs.Eicher in 6th grade having us do loopty loops of one form or another for 15-20 minutes every day :-\
Given the video game pandemic, I find this snippet from the article intuitively true: Few children build models anymore
LOVED building models as a kid (50s-60s) !
Fighter planes were très cool, warships always a challenge, and you simply couldn't do NASA stuff without a sense of awe & pride.
(not to mention Estes rockets .. whoooooosh ! :-)
I recently met a college professor who teaches engineering who says he's encountering students who have never used a screwdriver.