In schools across the country, many students are taught cursive at a fairly young age. I remember having to do weekly, at some points daily worksheets and assignments dedicated to helping myself and peers perfect this type of handwriting. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad about knowing cursive, it's a great skill to have, but it isn't essential in nearly any scenario and is pushed on students way too much. A large amount of time spent teaching children cursive, could have been used for many more useful, and better things, particularly ASL (American Sign Language).
There are approximately 1 million people in the united states who use ASL as their main way to communicate. The National Center for Health Statistics estimates that 28 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss. Approximately 2 million of them are classified as deaf. And yet a very small portion of the population knows anything beyond a few letters in ASL.
Sign language is its own language completely, and learning a new language is hard. However, it is easier and faster to learn and become fluent in a new language when you are young, which is typically the time when schools make students perfect cursive handwriting (typically around 3rd grade, or 8 years old). teaching cursive is time-consuming, it takes away from more relevant and important topics/subjects, it's easy to forget, and is rarely used in everyday life. New languages are used often and are harder to forget.
If we were to just teach ASL instead of cursive in schools we would be helping those who have to use it to communicate, whether they are completely deaf, mute, can't afford hearing aids, etc. Most students would keep this skill with them for the rest of their lives, and whether they could hear properly or not, would be able to communicate with others who have different experiences with hearing than themselves. People with hearing loss would be able to access a lot more without having to carry extra equipment or a translator just to be able to talk to people. Just imagine all the other possibilities if only we were all taught sign language, how much more progressive and amazing society would be.