Floyd Said:

How can I improve my cursive writing? ?

We Answered:

do a google search for cursive letters, print them out and then trace them or write them on a piece of paper. if nothing else, go get the learning tools for 3rd graders who learn cursive, wal-mart has them and I think dollar store does too.

also, learn to write them slowly until they are neat, then you can increase writing speed.

Tracy Said:

Do You Know How To Write In Cursive?

We Answered:

I'm a freshman in high school.

When I was in Elementary school, I was in the "multiage" which meant I was in the class with the highest percentage rating of kids that tend to take honors classes in middle school, but also that there are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in my class. I'm not positive on this but I think we might have been the only class to learn it. I'm not positive on that though. For a month or two after learning cursive I loved to write in it! I would do everything in cursive.
But then I just stopped using it. I don't exactly remember why, I think maybe it was just becoming more strenuous to write. I have never had a teacher require us to write in cursive. I still do use some forms of cursive when I'm trying to write very fast, I just connect some of letters basically but it's not real cursive, just some letters connected because I'm writing so fast I can't be bothered to pick up my pencil.

You are definitely right in saying people can't read cursive as effectively as once. My teacher gives us back our essays and it's really funny because every time he does it for the next five minutes kids are asking each other "what does this word say."
I also constantly pester my mom about "how messy her writing is" because it's in cursive, my mom claims it is very neat but I can barely read it. I am all for regular printing, I think it's just easier to read and write.
Now for why I gave up cursive(along with the rest of my class). I think it's because we just hadn't been writing with it for the first couple of years of our lives... we weren't used to it... and it was harder to write and took longer than regular printing. Yes you are also right about the newer teachers writing in non cursive...
How has script/cursive somehow outlived its usefulness?
I would just say kids don't use it as much anymore because they are taught to write in the font I am typing in first, and then cursive and it's not important which one you write in like in your case. It just feels more natural to them since they learned it first, therefore they use it, not using cursive. Many others feel the same way, and it becomes less important.
I guess it would be a little bit comparable to a Spanish speaker coming to America and having to learn English. Even though they will learn English and learn to understand it, when they have a chance they will still use their native tongue because it feels more natural to them. But now imagine if they never interacted with English speakers... they wouldn't have to worry about using English.

Dawn Said:

How many people actually know how to write in cursive?

We Answered:

I write in script all the time. I think it looks prettier. It's annoying to me though, when others use it and their script is so horrible I can't read it.

Ramon Said:

When should a child learn to write cursive?

We Answered:

Personally as a mother who home schooled her oldest daughter from K-5 I believe that cursive should only be taught when print is pretty and a child is quite comfortable with it. Both my children are now both in a small mission school here in Romania that uses the Abeka curriculum and my youngest is in Kindergarden and is already writting in cursive.