I don’t recall exactly why I decided to take a typing class in high school. Maybe it was because it wouldn’t add to my academic-class load: a load which was rather high. Maybe it was because I had some semblance of understanding such skills might be important down the road. Maybe it was required. I don’t recall.
They might have even called the class “Business,” not “Typing,” but we all knew what it was; we were going to learn to type.
I think I was a sophomore when I took the class. Maybe a junior. In either case, it was around 1978-9.
I don’t know if kids are taught ‘typing’ in school now, or if such skills are considered ones they should learn by immersion or osmosis in a digital-rich world. Maybe if they actually are taught ‘typing,’ they’d learn it earlier, say in middle school, not high school, as I did.
Maybe such classes are considered irrelevant when one just needs a URL and free, online lessons, replete with results tracking, gamification and probably even session reports summarizing where you’re doing well and where you have–as the saying goes–“room for improvement.”
I do remember when taking this typing, erm, uh, business, class that the typewriters were newer, fancier, modern. Lightyears beyond what we had at home and what I’d used for an occasional school project where I was required to type up an assignment.
At home, we had the old typewriter my grandpop used in his front-of-house small grocery store back in the 1930s and through to the ’50s. It might have even been older and longer in his possession. I just know it was old even back then. Even when I had to type up a hundred or two words for a school report in elementary or middle school.
As a kid, I never thought, “Oh, we should have a better typewriter.” See, technology as part of the average household budget was a much lower priority in the ’70s.
And while, of course, there were people who were really into their TVs, 8-tracks, sound systems and more, for the average family and consumer, technology was something you bought, kept and endured in its failings. TV turning knob broke? Get a screwdriver. TV antennae not working? Make a new one out of a coat hanger.
And in our case with the old typewriter, if the letter keys jammed or overlapped with each other, we’d pry them apart, or maybe get out some grease and try to make them function more smoothly.
We each and all get to witness the world change from our own unique (and shared) vantage points. For me, as an early-wave Gen Xer now in her early 60s, the world I’ve seen change from a communications perspective and the tools I’ve used in my tradecraft as a writer and communications professional have changed quite dramatically. And often rather quickly.
I’ve been feeling reflective of late, and I’ll be posting more back-then-and-when stories in my journey as a writer. Stay tuned. And chime in on what you recall and have witnessed in this regard, if doing so calls to you.
