Cursive Handwriting - Nein Danke!

While listening to Dr. Terry Holliday, Commissioner of Education in KY, last week at Leadership Kentucky, I was so glad to hear him and others discuss cursive handwriting.  He explained to the group of KY business leaders, educators, bankers, and more, that the reason we, humans, started to use cursive handwriting was because of the quill and ink.  If you were using a quill to write, and picked up the quill between each letter, you'd end up with a mess, thus making cursive a more attractive alternative. 

When was the last time you used a quill and ink well to write?

As I continued to reflect on this, I began to change my mind on a previous stance (just like our politicians, I'm a flip-flopper) that it is important for the mental and cultural development of our students to teach cursive writing. 

Should we not rather be teaching our students have to type on little glass screens?  I know that not everyone is using touch screen devices, but at some point in the future, this will be the case (Meet George Jetson...ba-ba-da).  Why do some people continue to harp about the fact that we are not teaching cursive handwriting to students, when that is preparing them for absolutely nothing. 

We as teachers need to take the future into account for what we are teaching our students.  What will help them in 10-20-30 years?  As the various inspirational videos (just check out YouTube) say, and I'm paraphrasing, "we are preparing our students for jobs that don't yet exist".  Let's get with the program and get students using more and more devices, wireless internet, and cloud services.  This is where we are now.  Who knows where we will be going (that is, if the Mayan's are incorrect).