I was taught the Palmer method of cursive writing and won the penmanship award in Mrs. Skull’s 5th grade.
But I didn’t like the Q, S and Z, used printing letters after we went our separate ways and made the rest more economical. IOW, I got lazy.
I never really learned cursive. I was put in an advanced class after the second grade, where the teacher seemed surprised that we younger ones hadn’t learned any cursive yet. She pronounced that we’d just have to ‘pick it up’ - and my handwriting has forever been a weird combination of printing and cursive.
What strikes me is that even when my dad and his mother were very old and ‘rickety’, their handwriting was still artful. And I do think that the discipline and concentration that kids develop by learning those techniques have many benefits beyond just beautiful handwriting.