Wow. The majority of the attitudes on this topic are just shocking. I thought this was a conservative site, and yet many are quick to dispose of an element of classical education simply because they struggled with it or presently have little use for it. Hardly a classic conservative mentality. Do we eschew doing mathmatics on paper sans a calculator? Many do, but working the problems on paper does much, particularly at the elementary levels.
I have taught writing and literature. It is amazing how students can improve their stylistic abilities by copying an author by hand, preferably in cursive. It is an exercise that I have used in every class I have taught, it is one I still use to further my ability and understanding. You engage more of your brain, you must slow down, things that are written by hand are retained more than things simply read or typed.
Anything I write that I want to be well crafted will be hand written, at least in part, before it is typed. It makes a big difference.
I also do not think forming an impression of a person by their writing is wrong. Even outside of cursive, if you do not conjugate, spell correctly, punctuate, have proper usage, suggest who you are. All these things are indicative of what kind of person and thinker you are and how much effort you put into your work and how much effort you make toward you own refinement and education. Someone who has flawless penmenship and grammar usage is seldom a sloppy thinker.
Finally, I am home schooling a child. All of her assignments are in cursive. It is amazing how reading cursive has improved her own cursive. She must also provide her answers in math in writing, explaining in detail how she arrived at the answer. IF she does not want to write an essay, then she must copy one in cursvie. The more of her faculties I make her employ, the more she comes to truly understand what she is doing.
Cursive is an important tool.
Placemark.
Exactly. You got it all covered.
I don’t much use cursive (nor was it ever lovely), but I have an appreciation for it. No matter what any scoffer here says, it is MEANT to be faster than just printing by hand, and is. And despite all the techno-freaks protestations, there will always be a need for simple methods of communication, and cursive is just faster.