I agree that an oft-cited reason for learning cursive is speed. Another primary historical reason for the existence of cursive is that it apparently lessened stress on fragile quill pens in the old days.

Studies are scant on comparative speed of printing vs. cursive, but it turned out in the leading study that printing is slightly faster in general, that mixed styles are faster than either, and that a mixed style dominated by printing was fastest. It's also true that people are fastest with what they know best.

ETA: Found this:

Striving to increase my rate of flow, and fight forum gloopiness. sick