My schooling (in the US) went "all-in" on cursive - It was taught very early and all turned in assignments for all grades after learning cursive were required t

My schooling (in the US) went "all-in" on cursive - It was taught very early and all turned in assignments for all grades after learning cursive were required to be in cursive or you got a zero on the assignment. Yet, I have the exact same experience as you - "slower, more painful to the hand and far less legible than block letters" I suspect this is the most common outcome - which is why so few people write in cursive by choice. If it was strictly better we'd all keep using it when we didn't have to.