As protagonist Maggie Schultz stubbornly avoids the daunting task of cursive writing, Cleary highlights the importance of learning from, and rising above, one’s failures. Maggie, originally not seeing her obstinacy as a shortcoming, is proud of her refusal to learn something that she finds outdated and not useful. However, learning that she is disappointing those around her, coupled with her inability to read her teacher’s private messages, causes Maggie to come to terms with the fact that she should not have resisted learning cursive and that it is indeed helpful.

Determined to assert her independence and resist her parents’ and teacher’s authority, Maggie rarely practices cursive writing and does not take her lessons seriously. Maggie’s intelligence and academic success in other subjects lead her to believe that she is immune to failure. While she knows that her stubbornness is frustrating to her parents and teachers, she does not think that it reflects poorly on her talent or intelligence. When Mrs. Leeper expresses her concerns about Maggie’s failure to write in cursive, Maggie simply thinks, “Maybe no one had told Mrs. Leeper how Gifted and Talented she was” (22).