Interesting. Here in the States (at least, where I grew up), handwriting is a real mixed bag.

When you are learning how to write as a small child, it's a big deal to write clearly (for obvious reason). Then you are forced to learn cursive, and its a big deal to write cursive clearly.

Then it doesn't matter anymore. Literally everyone stops caring as long as it is legible. It's a weird system. While you are learning to read and write, there is an emphasis on penmanship. But once you are literate...no one cares anymore. Most people (like myself) degenerate back to chicken scratch. Especially as typing became more prevalent. I would hazard a guess that children in the States have even worse handwriting nowadays.

I actually find it physically difficult to hand write more then a few words these days. It's pretty sad.

Ha! I'm the same way. It's so damn slow compared to how much I can put down in the same time if I were on my mechanical keyboard instead.

I always hated high school in class essays because all I could think was that I'd be able to write 3x better/more efficiently/produce more content if I were doing it on a keyboard. Plus, it always gave me handcramps. :(

  > big deal to write cursive clearly

The fact that cursive in US is considered some kind of special writing and is uncommon was one ot the biggest "This year I learned". This topic pops up on reddit from time to time, and usually there is a comment from non-US "we just call it writing". AFAIR I learned to write cursive from the very beginning. The first letters we wrote might have been capital ones, but I am pretty sure first words were in cursive.

I think some schools don't even teach cursive any more.

I wonder how those kids write their signatures.

They print them out.

'X'

Haha, so true. I wrote a couple of incoherent rants about this way back in the day:

http://shrik.theswamp.in/2004/03/presentation.html

and

http://shrik.theswamp.in/2004/03/presentation-2.html

>Coming to my case, I consider any one who boasts about great hand writing a loser.

I dedicated a lot during my school days trying to improve my handwriting without anyone's involvement. Naturally, I'm proud of how much my handwriting has improved. Thanks for the 'loser' tag.