I tutor Jr High kids and as far as I can tell, there are no Handwriting lessons. Most classwork is handed in in printed form. Notes are taken in longhand, but block letters, no cursive.
And handwritten work is not viewed for form at all. Only if it becomes totally illegible.
There is something special about taking a pen/pencil to paper & writing. I can't explain it, but it has a real effect.
I think it should be taught through a cursive level competency in middle school.
I had to make my kids practice signing their names til it looked above 3rd grade level, to sign their passports. Sheesh, how embarrassing! 
I agree with you.
When I was in grade eight.... my home-room teacher wanted "me" to enter a hand-writing contest (I was good). I refused for two reasons.
One, generally only
girls generally entered these kind of contests...!
Two is a bigger one. Being born back in 1954, I happened to be born a left-handed person that was constantly forced to be a right-handed person.
Even in grade three, the pressure was on. I actually had the teacher's yard-stick rapped on my head more than once for using my left hand to write (like.. if you aren't right-handed, we have no use for you). So I would turn the scribbler lines to be vertical. Then my writing would look like a right-handed person had written it. I did this until the end of grade eight. After that... grade nine, I thought... fuk you. (frank sinatra, I did it my way... so can I).
So, to this day day I can write
great the "forced" right-hand way. But I
refuse to do it. So to this day... all I will do is print the
left-handed way.
