At first, 45 students signed up for the cursive club that Sylvia Hughes founded last fall at Nellie K. Parker Elementary School. But then the club grew to 60 8- and 9-year olds.

Cursive is for when you have nothing else to do, or want to live out some steampunk fantasy. Typing, voice dictation technology or my usual chicken scratch would’ve done the job far faster.

Less than 10 years ago, only 14 states required schools to teach cursive—but that number has been steadily increasing, with 24 now having some kind of requirement. This year, Kentucky became the ...