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Cursive Writing Is a Fading Skill — Does It Matter?
antdude sends along an AP piece on the decline of the teaching of cursive writing in schools — ramifications of which we've discussed a few times before. "The decline of cursive is happening as students are doing more and more work on computers, including writing. In 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019. ... Handwriting is increasingly something people do only when they need to make a note to themselves rather than communicate with others, [an educator] said. Students accustomed to using computers to write at home have a hard time seeing the relevance of hours of practicing cursive handwriting. 'I am not sure students have a sense of any reason why they should vest their time and effort in writing a message out manually when it can be sent electronically in seconds.'"
OK, and while we're at it, why don't we also stop wasting time on math? I mean seriously, it's not a waste of time, there's a reason why it's "reading and writing" not "reading and typing" and it's not just for archaic reasons. You aren't really literate if you're just picking one of the correct key on the type writer, it's just not the same command of the language if you have to pick the right one and actually write it out. We aren't going to get to the point of perfect always available computers for quite some time, and until then there's absolutely no justification for dropping cursive from the curriculum.
I have a C&R FFL that requires a bound logbook. I also have a private pilots license which I use a paper logbook for as well.
I've not written a bit of cursive in either. Print works fine in them. To tell the truth, aside from my signature, I haven't written a word of cursive since they stopped requiring students write in it (which was around the 7th grade or so - about 15 years ago).
Then your English professors at the high school and University level failed to do their job. Cursive writing was always required when doing essay exams and more. Only the area where applied mathematical symbolic notation was needed could one be allowed and encourage to take their time writing out non-cursive script to make sure their is no illegibility in their solutions.