I agree with this completely. My DS6 has dyspraxia (includes dysgraphia and other issues too) and one of his teachers keeps telling me that "he can write properly when he wants to" and pulls out the same assigment he did some months ago that really does look good compared to his usual writing. I tried explaining that inconsistency goes along with his disablility, but she doesn't seem to see it this way. She then suggested I read a book about "pampered child syndrome." Agggh
One of the hardest things that I had to learn to deal with was that people seemed to think I was lying about my son's disabilities (dyspraxia, dysgraphia, hypotonia, sensory issues) because he could achieve at a higher level academically than the average kid his age without disabilities, could write well enough on a short writing test at age 7 that I was told his writing was low normal (they didn't test long enough for the disability to show up), they had never heard of hypotonia and he looked normal, therefore he could not have it, he could not have sensory issues because he didn't have any behavioral issues, although they were more than willing to accept that he might have Asperger's, something he has never been diagnosed with because he read at such an early age, could memorize faster than most people, and always talked more like an adult.
My son's disabilities are not consistent. We homeschool around this inconsistency, as well as the pain from migraines and fatigue and endurance issues. I can tell when he is having an off day either from headaches or fatigue or whatever because he will still at age 12 occasionally write a number backwards. I see him do something like this maybe once every three or four months. It is a glitch that I am sure would cause embarrassment if he were in our public school. He will tell you that it isn't because he doesn't know how to write the number, it is just a glitch that happens and we still don't know how to explain this. When he does math, he feels that for him, it only makes sense to write as little as possible and do as much of the problem mentally as he can because of the dysgraphia. It makes sense to me. It also makes sense to me to take a break on days when his pain or something else is causing enough distraction that he isn't learning as well as he should. He more than makes up for it on days when he is doing well and his self esteem is left intact, along with the knowledge that he really is a smart kid with disabilities that he can compensate for.
When he was tested by a neuropsychologist at age 11 with a migraine and fatigue, his disabilities showed up and the neuropsychologist said if he went back to public school he would need an IEP for his writing issues and maybe he would if he were in a class taught by a strict color in the lines teacher, but luckily his writing teacher believes that what is important is the final typed product so bad handwriting is not really a problem.
My son's dysgraphia also causes trouble with writing out math problems quickly. When he is allowed to use mental math and not forced to show his work he does very well in math. He has had no problems with algebra or word problems as long as I let him do it his way. His mental math ability is so much better than mine because of his writing disability.
This year at age 12 he took his first class requiring a lot of writing and he didn't even tell his teacher about the dysgraphia. He is writing well enough (by typing his assignments) that he is making A's on everything and he one of the youngest kids in the class of 7th - 9th graders. He had no IEP or 504, just an understanding teacher with common sense.
Maybe, in addition to testing kids for learning disabilities, they should test the teachers for their ability to incorporate common sense in their teaching methods.
