In the US handwriting has also gotten worse over the past 50 years.  My GrandMother has beautiful handwriting and had required classes in penmanship.  My Mother's is pretty good.  No comment on mine :-)  And my Daughter's handwriting is readable, but does not have the beauty of the older generation.  And with computers, I type so much more than I use penmanship.

And China has a similar issue with Chinese characters, where people forget how to write certain characters.  Nice article with examples of common people in Beijing asked to write characters.

China's Handwriting Challenge - The Atlantic

Labels: chinese characters