So it certainly is not a waste of everyone's time, and it does add to the language but only in the sense that it is, can be, and should be, considered a form of art. And last time I checked beauty is not a waste of time (well not always). I learned italics instead of cursive in the 1980s; I was in the first year they dropped cursive. I lamented not learning cursive when I saw my mom's handwriting...but I also lament not learning art when I was young when I see people effortlessly sketch out a dog or some thing like that. Yet my lament is not enough to invest the time to learn those skills; I would rather learn some other thing; but I am not everybody and I know some people that certainly love cursive and have learned different variations of cursive and some have gone into calligraphy. So I think it should be some form of an elective, just like art class. Perhaps that is the proper place.