I think it is time for us to take some responsibility for what our kids learn. Too much is left to the school to teach, in my opinion. I remember hours spent learning cursive in school, how painful and awful it was for me (we didn't know dysgraphia existed then, at least no one I knew did, and I have it quite badly even now), and how penmanship, or how neat your cursive writing was, was the only class I ever got a bad grade in through elem school.
If you think it is important, go to an educational supply source or to amazon and find a book on how to write it. Also go to the school and ask what grade it is taught in. If it is not taught, don't go to the teachers, go to the school board. Start a petition, go to board meetings, bring up the reasons you think it should be taught.
I know that the elem school my nephew attended taught them to write not print or cursive but a form of writing that was a mix of both and it drastically hampered his learning to read. The books did not have letters he was familiar with, nor did anything handwritten by anyone he knew look ANYTHING like what he had been taught to write. His entire class at school was the first taught with this method and their test scores were behind the previous classes for at least three years. The entire grade had problems, not just nephew, and it only stopped when sister in law and brother in law and other parents started going to school board meetings and demanding that this nonsense be stopped. Only 3 years worth of students were taught this method, but all three of them were behind in elem years.
This 'mixed' writing was some educators bright idea of how to solve which type of writing is best to teach. All I know is that it was NOT a good thing, and it was not until parents got together and went to the board of ed to complain that it was stopped. It wasn't just the kids in his grade in his school that were behind, it was ALL kids in his grade in his district, and they had to get parents from all schools to petition and go to meetings to get it changed.
If this is a problem, you can gripe, you can go to the board, or you can teach your child what you feel is important. I know that as long as my kids CAN write I am happy. BUT I was NEVER a fan of cursive even though I can and do use it. Of course, my opinion MUST be tempered with the knowledge that a day or two after a class I was unable to read my own class notes. That is still true. If I write in cursive, I cannot read my own writing after a few days. It is simply that awful, though I spent years in a Catholic school where not learning cursive was equal to allowing Satan to have your soul (I wish that was a joke, you didn't know our nuns, sigh.).
I personally taught my kids a whole lot of thigns that school did not teach them that I learned at their age in school, mostly because it was important to me that they know it. I think we are all responsible for that with our kids, and if it is important to us, we will find a way to teach it.
I believe you can find info online about how to learn cursive writing. I would google it or look for books on amazon. I know when our school decided that learning the multiplication and division tables by memory was 'unproductive', my kids spent hours at home learning them anyway. in my opinion that is important because you cannot always stop to do the problem when comparing prices in stores or at other times when you need the math.
