@SLBuckland: I'm lefthanded too, and am possibly the only leftie I know whose cursive is highly legible, but I was lucky: one day, shortly after I began learning to write (this was in Italy, when I was in my first months of first grade, and they ONLY taught kids to write cursive; print was for books), my dad noticed that I was making a mess of things. Not surprising, since as a leftie, I was pushing the pen along, and my hand obscured what I wrote, making things like consistency nearly impossible.

He said 'Stop', leaned forward, and turned the page on which I was writing nearly 90 degrees clockwise, so it was nearly horizontal. Then he said, 'Try that', and coached me, so I wrote my hand 'underneath' (actually to the left of) the writing.
End of problem.

I don't understand why all the handwriting coaches that my classmates had never seemed to think of this; when I suggested it, other kids (and their parents) dismissed the idea, saying 'it looked weird', and that they should stick with just practicing a lot (which they hated, naturally; nobody enjoys being forced to repeat their failures ad nauseum). But rotating the page makes perfect sense, works pretty much from the word go, and requires next to no time to explain.

Works for printing, too.

So, I have to admit, I still think it is a good idea to learn to write in cursive. It only takes week or so to learn. Besides, with a teacher who pays attention and knows what he or she is doing, it provides an excellent opportunity to note coordination problems, since a complete inability to write legibly (in either print or cursive) might indicate an issue that is most successfully tackled early on.

Given the increase in voice activated devices, one could also argue that literacy is not really in the future, either.
Spelling is going (I'm a copyeditor), and I've seen heaps of text messages that have as few vowels as Hebrew or Arabic. The ability to sew, hunt, or make shoes has long been unnecessary, and frankly, who REALLY needs to cook?
On the other hand, these skills were evolved over a long period of time, and engaging in these activities connects us to the past. The past matters, because it is out of the past that the present has come, and from which the future will emerge.

I love a lot of new technology, and am forever fiddling with, and tweaking my computers. But I'm glad I can write in cursive, too; it connects me to those who came before me, and may be read by those who are around a long way in the future. I may be more acutely aware of the vacuum that one is likely to experience, sooner or later, if one has no real connection to the past (it comes in those moments of silence, when the TV/radio/etc. is off, and you can actually hear your own thoughts), because I was born in a quite young country, but grew up in a couple of very old ones, and have travelled my entire life; I have no particular sense of a place or history that is 'mine'.

Then again, I believe that ethics and being able to structure a cohesive argument should be taught at school too, so I know I'm in the minority ;)