Honestly, the first thing I wanted to say was: “Of course, the cursive is important in Russian! You need to know it! " But then I thought: how often do we, Russians, face the necessity to write and read the cursive? I personally often do, at my job. But, to be frankly, sometimes I really can't read what my colleagues wrote, even though they are not doctors))) But I pretty rarely face the necessity to write and read the cursive out of my job. So I think you firstly need to ask yourself: how often do you suppose the cursive skill would be in good stead for you, and, depending on the answer, give attention to the developing of this skill. I would like to give you a piece of advice: learn the main principles, use them in your studing (because the cursive letters are more easy in writing than the block ones), but don't waste your time for this subject more than it deserves.