Posted on 02/26/2023 1:27:28 PM PST by SamAdams76
I retired 9 years ago. They have not taught cursive for close to 20 years now.. I have made sure my own grand niece could write cursive when she was in 3rd and 4th grade.
I remember the exercises.
“Okay, class. Type l-o-l. Good. Now type that 50 more times.
I yelled “Hey, I’m texting! LOL!”
Don’t know how you could research original documents without knowing cursive. Told that to my students all the time.
asdf;lkj asdf;lkj asdf;lkj on and on and on and on...
This is something that has never left my brain after learning to type in 1953-1954 on Royal manual typewriters. I hear a word, and my fingers move to type it in my mind.
For years after working with manual typewriters, there came a time when the IBM electric typewriters came to offices. When they were ordered, I always ordered a new Royal as I wanted no part of IBM electric ones until years later.
Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1upTPepErTY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VgN3nm7rZI
Great story...I made my Junior High son take typing during the summer when he was about 14...in the 80s...Later he hated college, so went into construction which he had done since his teens. Now he is Operations Manager for a good size Construction Company. He has to crank out lots of reports.
My typing teacher was a chaperone on our senior trip and molested two of our female classmates.
Mavis Beacon never molested anyone…
Just more dumbing down, of the masses.
Unreal, isn’t it? And, so sad.
Yes...our grands are being/will be taught cursive.
Maybe it will be like a secret code language, some day.
But the QWERTY keyboard intuitively made sense for me once I got the hang of the home positions (ASDF - JKL;). That puts the most commonly used characters in easy reach of your fingers when in home position. With repetition, it becomes second nature and you quickly figure out where the less commonly used keys are as well, such as ~, \, and } - all without looking.
Great story!
Your father must have been a wise man. Growing up, I remember young men were not interested in learning to touch-type. Today, most young men grew up typing on a computer. My sons used software that taught the proper method. Two of them type between 100-120 wpm. Both much faster than my 60 wpm maximum. Another is like the typical guys I grew up with: He developed his own form of typing and rolled his eyes whenever I mentioned the proper form. I argued that the proper form makes everything faster and easier. It’s useful in college and at the office. But, I have to admit, the men I grew up with did just fine with their own method.
I also took typing. Mainly because I found out that 6 of our high school cheerleaders were in that one class. While my original goal of improving my dating odds did NOT work out; I did learn to type and that has been very helpful in my profession.
I went through junior high in the later ‘60s. Myself and two friends had decided we were going to be famous journalists, so we took typing together. I think I maxed out at 40 wpm.
A favorite trick we played on each other was to scrumptiously flip the paper release on a buddy’s machine while he was typing away and looking only at the source document, as we were instructed. When he finished and looked at his work, the type would be running in different directions.
Another fun thing was the young teacher who sat on a high stool while wearing a short skirt and garters.
Incentivized us guys to sit near the front.
“kept reaching for the white-out”
One of the most underrated inventions for its time. I used a lot since I typed a lot in HS but was (and remain) unsalvageably hunt-and-peck. Invented by the mother of one of The Monkees IIRC. (As I was typing this, I discovered that my iPad flags “Monkees” as a misspelling.)
When I started as a professor, I asked one of my new colleagues if he knew he anyplace nearby where I could buy a grade book. He scoffed at me (he was the department rep to the university technology committee and plenty proud of it) and said he used a “spreadsheet.” I thus took up Quattro Pro, but it seems to have vanished into the ether.
I attended an all girls Catholic high school in the late 1970s. All students were required to take basic typing. The good Sisters were right. The skill was useful, especially when the PC became an office fixture.
I am not a memorizer. I took typing 50 years ago in Jr HS for a whole year and nope. Today no different. If I have my fingers on the home keys, how do I know what I typed when I can’t see it? I would have to go one at a time and then delete until I got it right.
I know the alphabet and I can read. But I could no more recite the alphabet backwards or every 3rd letter forwards and then backwards than I could type without looking. And I hardly use my cell phone because I don’t use symbols or sign language. It probably makes my life easier.
Speed burner! I was lucky to hit the big 3-0 per minute on occasion.
I took summer school all 4 years in HS. Relaxed environment, didn't have anything else going on from 8 to noon. The only academic course I took was American History. The rest included typing, bowling, coed cooking, a couple others that I can't recall...hey, it was from 68-72...lol.
Typing was one of the most useful classes I took.
Great post!
I took one semester of typing in 1974. I’m glad I took it.
Remington Raiders? Where’s the bayonet lug?
Sea of girls,
10th grade girls with raging hormones, and i was a geeky senior smart guy. Mrs. Walker FAWNED over me. Daggum near every girl dropped pencils on the floor in the aisle in front of me, third row.
Learned how to type fast enough to type term papers for other students at college later, 5 bucks a page. Couldn’t help but edit some.
Yah, it really was great when I played a pirate in Peter Pan, senior play. Good. Times.
You guys made this old timer smile today. Real. Good.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.