People come into the tattoo shop and want a name tattooed in script. I write it on a piece of paper and show it to them for their approval. A lot of the time a customer in their late teens, early twenties will act as if I pulled a rabbit out of a hat or made an elephant disappear. I couldn't figure it out until I heard that they had never learned to write in cursive.

When I heard about cursive no longer being a mandatory part of the elementary school curriculum I started asking young people if they knew how to write in that style. Most would shake their head and reply wistfully, "No, wish I could, we never learned that."

It seems to me that people in general got a more comprehensive (read better) education in the 1920s and '30s then in the 1970s and onward. A steady decline IMO. This is a personal observation based on talking to my parents and other people from the different age groups over the years.