We could take it back even further. Cursive and the current alphabet are relatively new inventions, maybe we should teach cuneiform in schools. Of course, then there's an argument about which form to teach. Some might be of the opinion you're illiterate if you know late Babylonian cuneiform but not Assyrian. There's value in all learning and skills, it's just that some are more relevant to our current lives than others.
I agree 100% on the political correctness part. The bureaucrats are some of the stupidest people in this country. Another thing I don't understand is why give everyone a trophy or medal for participating? It should just be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. That's like saying it's ok to suck and you don't have to try to be the best because you'll get a medal anyway.
The one argument that I have heard so far which has merit is the idea that learning cursive forces you to slow down and consider how words are formed. As it is such a different way of writing than most children are used to, I accept this argument as not only valid, but also a point to which I can find no flaw. Try as I might I can not come up with a good counter point to this idea. Just as learning a foreign language forces you to consider how languages work, so too does learning a new way to write words force the student to consider how those words are correctly formed and used in the first place. Cursive is not the only way to do this, but it is certainly the easiest and most wide spread. I hate to say it, but I feel as if I have lost this debate. As to the idea that children are no longer taught basic survival skills, well that is an optional skill set that parents have to actively decide upon. I used to work at a wilderness camp that took kids for a year and taught them how to make fire, how to cook in outdoor brick ovens, how to construct those ovens, how to cut down timber and then use that timber to build basic housing, land navigation, etc. There are many programs and schools which actively teach basic survival, farming, scavenging, etc. and if a parent knows these skills then they can easily take their children out a few times a year and teach them. Schools can't be expected to do everything, we have to take some of the responsibilities of preparing our kids for the inevitable zombie apocalypse...
I don't really like volunteering this info... but I was a Boy Scout and learned quite a few things about the outdoors from them. I learned first aid, how to set up camp, how to make a fire, basic navigation, and a few other things. I made it to Eagle, but it was a struggle. I'm not saying I'm a survivalist by any means, but I think I could make it. Back to the handwriting, I have always had terrible handwriting. I used to get points marked off for having bad handwriting. When I write, it's a mix of cursive and print. I write small too, so sometimes it was hard for people to read.
True, but there are a lot of people nowadays who can barely manage to print. The majority of the public never knew how to write in shorthand. In the not too distant past, literacy in cursive was almost universal, and many people still write in this script. What happens if someone is handed an import note in written in cursive, but cannot read it? One of the people where I work was handed an important notebook, kept by someone who recently quit. The notebook was written in cursive, but she does not know cursive at all. Some of the things she is able to decipher, but most of it is like a foreign language to her. Even for those folks who never have to use cursive, the ability to do so and to do so well reflects well on a person. It is like dressing up nice (cursive), as opposed to ordinary casual clothes (printing). Like the Gillette Fusion cartridge system? There are some who claim that traditional wetshaving is not the only way to shave, and not even the best way to shave, and that we should just let it go. Change is not always good. That changes in some aspects of life will occur is inevitable, but that a particular thing will change is far from certain.
