Me and my fellow Xennial zeigeistians learned a specific printing method called D’Nealian, which was designed to ease the transition from printing to cursive with its curly tails on every letter.

My nephew, Jace, is in preschool. He is learning to print his name. He printed his name for me recently – “J-c-e” on one line and “a” on the next line. He printed the “a” on its own line, ...