You usually learn cursive around the age of 7, while the teacher insists that cursive is all you will ever use once after that. In high school, I was told all the time that they only accept cursive in college.

I think the movement away from cursive is relatively recent, and entirely associated with the fact that virtually no teacher or professor will accept work that isn't typed up. You learn cursive in 3rd grade, then from there on all of your work is done on computers so you never reinforce it.