Penmanship: A Debate

What are your thoughts on cursive handwriting? 

I feel very nostalgic for cursive and am often depressed when I think of its current decline. 

As a teacher at a school, I witness first-hand its de-popularization. Teachers are given less time to teach it and in a new computer-oriented world good penmanship seems archaic. 

I've noticed that people in their 60s still have good handwriting---men and women alike. But after that generation, handwriting has gone downhill. Although women still seem to have nice handwriting, it is unique to them and doesn't have the uniformity stressed in school 50 years ago. 

What do you think? Is penmanship still important to you or something that time shouldn't be wasted on? 

- Grace