Loved this post! As a freshman at an all-boys high school, I was put into a typing class where all the other guys were senior football players. I decided the only way to cope was to type faster and more accurately than any of them. My folks rented a machine so I could practice at home, and I became the typing superstar. Used it all through high school, college, grad school, and college professorship. Most useful skill I ever learned.
My mom made me take typing (a guy, in High School). Mom and pop business - and dad didn’t type! After I started working I told her how much I appreciated her for making me take it, lots of report writing, etc.
She was also great with English and grammar. In my box of keepsakes I have a copy of a letter that was written to them from the newspaper asking them to place an ad in the paper.
All of the errors (a bunch!) were circled and corrected by my mom. She sent it back to the paper with a note at the bottom saying something like “Why would I want to place an advertisement in your paper?”