Learning to Write Cursive

Both of my sons are in a Montessori school, which means that they are being taught cursive as their first way of writing. There's a whole theory behind it which makes sense when you read it (the main benefit is that the kid doesn't have to lift their pencil from the page), but I've always been concerned that cursive a bit of a waste of time; after all, who writes in cursive these days. Even for those that know cursive, reading it can be a bit of a chore: I know my Mother's and my Grandmother's handwriting very well, but even so it can take a bit to decypher their cursive.

So it was with interest that I read this article by Danielle Magnuson. Among other things, she writes that:

...handwriting is not an antediluvian method of communication to be tossed aside in favor of e-learning, reports the Los Angeles Times (June 15, 2011). The motion of writing out letters and words and sentences by hand stimulates the brain in a way that keyboarding does not. Perhaps it is not so different than the way reading a book activates the brain differently than hearing the same information or watching it on a television screen. None of this is to say that computers and TV can’t be educational, but the tactile, memory-creating relationship between you and your language lessens once the re-creation of the letters by your own hand is taken out of the equation.

That's all well and good, but I just can't shake the feeling that both print and cursive are just as good for recognizing the benefits that Magnuson writes about. I have nothing to back this up, just my gut.