My kids (12 and 18) learned cursive in their Montessori school. Actually I think they learned it before print letters in primary class. At the time, they said it was easier to write in cursive than to print letters.
When I take notes, need to jot down ideas, make a plan… I use cursive. Printing a timed essay would be torture. I can also use print, but the ideas don’t flow and it’s so much slower and sloppier! I could actually feel the difference. I also type fast but while more efficient for some tasks, typing isn’t as good for memorizing/judging what’s important to memorize and file, planning, outlining/organizing… all the (critical) thinking is better on paper and better with cursive.
I can’t imagine what it does to the brain not to have that possibility.
I have family in France, and there, I don’t think people print after kindergarten (and only below-level kindergartners). Preschool is public and widely attended (something like 99% 3-year olds attend). If you know La Petite Ecole in NYC? What we pay $20,000 for, is what they get for free. The school is devoted to language (oral communication, expressing feelings, reading stories), physical skills (fine motor skills, larger skills like pedaling on a bike with training wheels or climbing - they even have mini-climbing walls) and creativity, but there’s a national curriculum. One part of the curriculum involves “graphisme”, which is a 3-year progression that is similar to drawing but leads to cursive writing in kindergarten. Many 3/4-year olds can write their names in cursive at the end of Year 1, and can write a couple nicely looped capital letters at the end of Year 2 - always linked to their name, Maman, Papa, whatever their best friend’s name is or whatever they want to learn to write. Year 1 and Year 2 students print but Year 2 students move on to cursive, which is considered “big kid writing” (vs. printing, called “stick letters”, which are considered “for babies”.) I can’t imagine that American children have significant physical problems, en masse, that means that at age 6 or 7, they’re unable to do what most French 5 year olds can do. These kids don’t have penmanship or writing lessons as far as I can tell: it seems integrated into other stuff they do. They practice “air writing” like you play air guitar, they draw, they have their “graphisme” exercises, they sign their name on everything. By year 3 (age 5-6, roughly kindergarten), kids write in cursive. As far as I can tell, they spend a lot of time singing, memorizing short poems, cooking, playing, listening to stories… but a little bit of time is dedicated to writing stuff, usually with crayons and pencils.
This ends in 1st grade, when kids move on to… fountain pens. Yup. There are special “training pens”, including models for left-handed kids:
http://www.amazon.fr/Pelikan-dapprentissage-Pelikano-Junior-gaucher/dp/B000FFUCJY
as well as ink-erasers:
http://www.first-office.fr/3060-9515-thickbox/effaceur-d-encre-reynolds-pointe-fine-magic-plus-de-paper-mate.jpg
They may have penmanship lessons then as far as I know they continue with the “air guitar” and they don’t get a grade for writing poorly (to be fair they’re generally not graded), although I’ve heard of teachers who tear up poorly written exercises (not sure if it’s a legend or if it’s true). It seems to be considered part of learning how to read.
This is a student with dysgraphia, who was referred to a specialist thanks to his kindergarten teacher:
Year 2: “fill the jar with candy”
http://troublesneurovisuels.r.t.f.unblog.fr/files/2012/11/graphisme-ms-red.jpg
Kindergarten: “Continue the visual rhythm”
http://troublesneurovisuels.r.t.f.unblog.fr/files/2012/11/graphisme-gs001-red.jpg
Full series for the child up to 5th grade:
http://troublesneurovisuels.unblog.fr/dysgraphie/
Good handwriting, kindergarten:
http://troublesneurovisuels.r.t.f.unblog.fr/files/2012/11/ecriture-gs.jpg
To be honest though, the most amazing thing this école maternelle seems to teach is for all 3 year olds to know how to put on their own coat through the “butterfly method”. Seriously, I’m amazed to hear an adult say “put on your coat” to a 2 or 3 year old who’ll do this (below), like it’s normal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjRhIemtDE
(youtube, “mettre son manteau papillon” should yield LOTS of examples. Parents seem to be very proud of the skill).
Anyway, I do think children should know how to write in cursive as well as read it. It’s a handy skill to have as an adult and if we choose not to use it, at least we had the opportunity to learn. Spread it over all 6 years of elementary school and reactivate it when MS/HS students write long form. I don’t think penmanship should be a subject (it’s a skill, like catching a ball or riding a bike) and time should be devoted to other endeavors, but making sure everyone can write their own notes and use that “linked” thing in the brain doesn’t seem extraneous.
That does sound like a good system. I guess it’s too late to raise my child in France.
I hadn’t heard it called “the butterfly method” but that’s how my kids put their coats on when they were that age. I thought that was common nowadays (of course, mine were that age a few decades ago…)
I don’t recall having my kids do that one way or the other, but I thought that was a pretty common technique as well for a young child putting on a coat.
re post #41, the French have wonderful notebooks with which are not only lined, but also have a lighter line for the midpoint of the letters and proper spacing between lines. I loved writing in them when I was a student in France (at age 16/17.)
I guess Im unlucky and all the young parents I know get stuck in a coat/mittens/hat melee having to put their toddlers’ coats on for them, holding out one sleeve, wrapping, other arm, pulling, tucking, zipping, hat - and that’s if they cooperate. So, I seriously thought that technique was genius 
Oh well.