Cursive is useless. It requires the same low-tech equipment to produce as hand printing, and is harder to read. It is in the process of going extinct. I went through school before the computer age -- even in college many of my research papers were handprinted, rather than typed -- and haven't used cursive since early elementary school.
Cursive, IIRC, developed as a writing style to avoid a specific problem with quill-style pens. Any time you put the pen down to the paper, you risk getting an ink blot. Cursive, by connecting all the letters in a smooth, flowing line, avoids some of the ink blots. I read a study a few months ago that found that a mixture of cursive and printed letters is the fastest and most common way of writing. Legibility is an issue with any writing system.