[sbf501]

...and the pen/quill/cuneiform killed the saga since people could now write it down, so why bother remembering to tell a story around a campfire at a certain time a week? (sound familiar today?)

I get the point, but I think "amputates" is the wrong word, like user "tootie" below who said "obviates" is the right word, but was downvoted into greyville. Tootie is right: it alleviates the need for something. It doesn't kill it entirely.

When the technology breaks, we still need to communicate. So yes, teach people how to write their language (or more!) But cursive writing has always been notoriously riddled difficulties due to individual hiccups in style. I agree everyone should know how to write in the simplest form: printing English/European languages, simplified Chinese, etc. But flourishy cursive is only readable by people who wrote it with artistic skills, or kids that were drilled for hours and hours on end, when there is plenty of other more important stuff for them to learn, IMHO.