Printing vs. cursive writing
My youngest sister (b. 1951) was just starting elementary school when they decided on one of those great new ideas, this time that cursive writing was a waste of time and all children should learn to print neatly and forget about the cursive writing. She still does it; it's quite legible and she can write almost as fast as someone using cursive writing.

When I learned to write, ca. 1946, we sat at the old-fashioned cast iron desks with wood benches and a slanting wood top (which opened to store your things) and an ink bottle set in a hole in the top right corner. Once you mastered writing with a pencil, you then began writing with a steel pen (the steel nib set in a pen-holder, if anyone remembers these terms) and the ink bottle. There were, of course, hours of practicing by the Palmer method to produce the standard hand, which was somewhat like the classic "copperplate" hand but not quite as elegant. Of course, as time went by, everyone abandoned that hand, as it was too slow. My handwriting was not too bad until I took an art history course in college. It consisted mostly of slides, which were shown, of course, in a dark room, with commentary and at a pretty stiff pace. Having to take notes furiously in the dark resulted in a condensed and greatly streamlined hand which is often illegible not only to others but occasionally to me.