I am always amazed by people I know who, even after completing 4 years in university couldn't spell correctly or write legibly. It always amazed me that out of almost all of my friends at the university, I was the only male who could write in cursive. It was such that I often got complimented on my cursive (though in my mind it's really not that neat).
In third grade, they always told us that in fourth we'd have to do everything in cursive, but fourth grade came and went, and they never penalized anyone for not using cursive, so all the boys went back to their printing. For me, I think the reason I kept it up was a speed thing -- I could write faster in cursive than I could with printing, which definitely came in handy on the in-class essay exams I'd need to write at Cal.
Some teachers and professors actually prefer that their students use printing in their in-class essays rather than cursive because cursive tends become less legible when students write very quickly.
I mostly use printing in my everyday life and for class notes but I may occasionally use cursive when I take notes or when I am writing in-class essays. =)