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The Case For Mandatory Touch-Typing In High School
Hugh Pickens writes "With the perspective of forty-plus years since my graduation, I would say the single most useful course I took in high school was a business class in touch-typing that gave me a head start for writing and with computers that I have benefited from my entire life. So it was with particular interest that I read Gordon Rayner's essay in the Telegraph proposing that schools add a mandatory course in touch typing to the cornerstones of education: reading, writing and arithmetic. 'Regardless of the career a child takes up when they leave school, a high percentage of them will use a keyboard in their daily work, and all of them are likely to use a keyboard in their leisure time,' writes Rayner. 'Touch-typing would help every child throughout their lives — so why are our schools so blind to this?'"
I'm pretty sure because its change, schools don't like change, change is hard, it means more work, teachers already have enough work to do, lets go shopping.
Say goodbye evolution/creation debate. Say hello keyboard layout wars.
I won't have you teaching my children DVORAK, you left wing hippie! If QWERTY was good enough for our founding fathers, its good enough for us!
I'm a software engineer, and I get to work daily with some people who never learned to touch-type. It would be a nice bonus to productivity if everyone around me could; not ground-breaking, but nice. I think, by and large, by the time people hit the workforce, their typing habits are pretty unlikely to change without some major effort. Is even high school too late? Most kids are regularly using computers right through primary school. I think learning to type is a responsibility shared by parents and primary schools these days.
..to be first?
I had mandatory touch-typing in middle school (6th-8th grades) and it was worthless. I didn't learn a thing - I typed slowly and uncomfortably.
Then one day, I decided I wanted to learn to program computers. I taught myself C, and halfway through the project discovered that I had become a pretty good touch typist. Typing is a skill like riding a bike - you'll learn it by doing it. Forcing it on kids (who would rather be taking another, more meaningful course but can't because their schedule is full of crap) is only going to make them resent it.
Just because something is valuable doesn't mean public education has to teach it. As I student, I can say that the room in our schedules is finite, and if it's both useful and easy (like typing) we'll get it on our own, we don't need it taking up scarce time slots.
Think about how much it would hurt their texting speed to have to work on a layout as large as a full-sized keyboard.
I don't type very fast, but I also don't really have anything too interesting to say.
Why schools ignore it? Because it's vocation education.
Typing speed is what matters. I've never taken a single touch typing class, and with the exception of knowing what the two notches on the F and J keys are there for, I have little idea of what finger is for what key. The result? I type at 90+ words per minute and have extremely high accuracy.
Touch typing classes were MUCH more relevant in the days when correction tape was used and it meant that important papers would have to be completely retyped when there was a mistake. Alternately, it was important when correction tape or white out was actually a major office expense. Both of these issues are entirely irrelevant today.
If you want to push for something, how about hand writing classes since there are massive numbers of people that after leaving high school use a pen or pencil for little more than writing their names or doodling a picture on their notepad during a meeting. Penmanship is at an all-time low. Boys who were classically bad writers to begin with are probably unlikely to be able to read their own writing anymore. Girls are the new boys, their handwriting is deplorable as well now.
An even better idea, how about mandatory short-hand classes so that when people do not have computers available to them (for example in meetings) will be able to write in some for or another that allows them to take accurate notes and still read it afterwards when they're back in front of their computers. It's been around since the days of Caesar, believed to have been invented by Cicero's manservant Marcus Tullius Tiro and yet, while being a most efficient form of writing is still barely used outside of court rooms.
People who need to learn to type will learn on their own. On top of that, it's rare that you encounter a high school student these days that can't manage at least 30 words per minute. Their greatest flaw is no longer in typing speed, but the fact that even with a spell checker, they can't spell for shit. Let's not forget that spell checkers don't cover things like They're Their and There.
On the one hand, I absolutely agree with the author. I graduated from high school in 1988, and within 5 years I had recognized that the single most important course I took was a half-semester of typing. (Naturally, other subjects - taken as a whole - were more important.)
However, while students today would still be well-served to learn how to type, the technologies are now being developed which will eventually allow even faster data manipulation with direct mind interfaces that will make keyboards appear, as Scotty in Star Trek IV put it, "quaint". Intelligent students of education have long understood that by the time an educational institution understands the importance of new information, it has already been superseded - so I expect typing classes will become mandatory just about the time that the mainstream has forgotten about keyboards entirely.
As chairman of the Hunt-And-Peck Association of Typists (HPAT), I demand equal representation in the class room.
When I was in elementary school, we went to the computer lab a couple days a week and were forced to use the PAWS typing tutor software on the Apple IIe. Is it really that case that there are still schools that don't teach this? Also, based on my experience, I don't think we should wait until high school to teach people to type. Elementary school seems like the right place, as children are learning to read and write, why not learn to type too?
So now is the chance to get people to start using DVORAK or maybe something even better (maybe there's been more research on this the last decades). Personally I still use QWERTY but that's just because of 20+ years of being used to it. Would be nice with a thought-through layout as standard.
c++;
I never thought I'd be typing for a living. I thank a brief encounter with a VAX 11/780 for inspiring me to take a typing class in HS sophomore year. That said, Just require them to use a keyboard... no need to teach typing. They'll figure it out -- just ask their Xbox
I had to take typing in High School (91-95 on electric typewriters). I didn't realize that curriculum had been dropped. Has it? Is this even an issue?
I thought kids learned to do this on their own once they start using AIM or IRC or social sites?
Teaching children touch-typing is an excellent idea, but high school is much too late. Even junior high school kids have reports to write, and still younger kids are using computers. Touch-typing should be taught in elementary school. As far as the curriculum is concerned, grade five or six would probably be alright, but it might need to be earlier to prevent kids from fossilizing bad two-finger habits.
I went to an unusual school that taught touch-typing in grade six back in 1968. We didn't have personal computers then, but for me it was a godsend as I have awful handwriting. Judging from my experience in that school, sixth graders have no difficulty learning touch typing.
It's YOUR generation, 'with ... 40 years since [your] graduation' That needs typing lessons, not ours.
If we were forced to learn touch typing, it would be a horrible experience.
First of all, the people who already can touch type would be forced to take a semester or two long course that essentially review. Time that could be better spent taking better classes (like more APs).
Secondly, those of use who use dvorak would be forced to spend a semester or two with a keyboard layout that is horrible, in our perspective.
Ideally, we could test out of it, but, who would offer that choice? I mean, using testing as something OTHER than grading schools? That's crazy talk.
And yeah, I do attend high school in silicon valley, and my school doesn't have ap compsci. Of course I'm pissed at that.
A high percentage of school children will also end up flipping burgers...... why not teach them that too?
I'm in my early 30's so I may be old fashioned, but I thought school was about providing an education, not about vocational skills.
In any case, if you do end up using a computer, how many of those jobs will require a high wpm count? - Probably only the secretarial type jobs. So let secretarial college teach this.
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
I'm in the IT line. I've never attended a typing course in my life but i self-taught myself touch-typing on some freeware, once in QWERTY, once in DVORAK and in either case it took a little less than three weeks. The real speed came from chatting in IRC. My sister is not in the IT line, she went through the same IRC "course" and she types just a little slower than I. As useful as touch typing is - I think it's trivial to pick it up when compared to something as deep as reading and arithmetic. All that being said, I realized that my own way of typing back then was not very much different than the "correct" fingering. When speed matters, we will all develop our own optimal way of typing - which should, IMHO, on average, converge on the prescribed "correct" method.
Typing was a mandatory class for both Grade 9 and Grade 10. Once you entered Grade 11, you had a choice. If you did choose to take typing, you had the option of general and advanced.
I don't want their hands to be crippled before they start their first job!
I wouldn't accept anything less than this: http://www.datahand.com/products/proii.htm
With a adapted proper layout like DVORAK, or for German keyboards NEO ( http://www.neo-layout.org/ Because compared to this, DVORAK looks like a bad joke of inside-the-box thinking ^^).
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Won't kids learn to type anyway? By the time I was forced to take typing class by my smugly progressive high school in the 1980s I had already taught myself to type. I had a different method (and still do) and resisted the home-key touch-typing method, with the result that I scored poorly in typing class. This was despite the fact that I can type accurately at 90wpm.
Perhaps there are some kids who haven't had much keyboard exposure who would benefit from it, but for those who have and use computers at home, it seems kind of like a waste of time.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
This was mandatory in my first year of high school(8-12). It only took a few weeks and was rolled into either the fine arts elective or the everything else course(sex ed, woodwork, cooking, sewing, etc).
Touch Typing could be taught in Elementary School but when I was there the computers were older than the students. The school could have taught touch typing on apple 2s but it did not.
Of course, maybe children are just learning this on their own or from family members now. I was managing to type a few "papers" before being taught touch typing and I do not recall hunting and pecking at the keys to do it.
[20:36] wwwdot/.dotorg
I had touch typing in school. I still search and peck. OK, I use 4 fingers instead of two. I would not be better or faster if I had passed that class.
The reason that I do not think it is very important is because I seldom type many words after another. Most of the time I type a few words and then re-think or do a research. e.g. the two few lines took me some 5 minutes, not because I could not find the letters, but because I stop every now and then.
I do not say that touch typing is useless, It is just that often going SLOWER is better then typing at full speed. In a real life explanation: you get an email from somebody in a business environment asking you on your progress on a certain project. I do not know what others do, but what I do is re-read the email, think about who the person is and how I will be answering.
Most of the time I will need to lookup some extra information. So during the answering, I will be twitching with alt/tab between screens. I will also use the mouse to do copy and pasting.
So the speed I might gain with touch typing will be very limited as typing is only part of the process and most of the time not the biggest part. I have tested working processes with people who were able to touch type very fast and the time difference was almost not existing.
Car example: You can have a ferrari and a yugo. You go a a big shopping spree where you drive from store to store and the stores are very close to each other. Say 2 minutes with the ferrari and 3 with the Yugo. Visit 10 stores with 30 minute visites each. That means 320 instead of 330 minutes or a gain of 10 minutes or 3%.
From the point of view of other professions, it might be a good adia to include that, because some people will be writing a lot without stopping in between. So it should depend on what they become later. Oh well, if they start doing it, they just take that time away from gym and kids already hate that.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
How can you forget this most basic of requirements. Don't you know most children will spend the rest of their lives breathing? Some do it professionally, but others do it socially.
Given how important this is for the rest of their lives, let's have a 2 semester course on breathing!
Did I mention eating? How about Viewing?
Typing's the same... It's a subset of communications...
You don't need to teach people how to type. You need to teach them what to type... They'll figure out how to do it themselves and if touch-typing is so important, they'll pursue that independantly.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
Bottom line is, they need to be learning things in some sort of a sequence so that they can build on what they already know. My opinion is they should go with it as follows:
I am well aware the article talks about teaching this at the high school level, but from what I've seen, it doesn't improve much. When I was in high school, there were juniors and seniors who could barely read, and their handwriting may as well have been from Omicron Persei 8 for how legible it was. We need to make sure kids have a handle on the basic skills BEFORE they get to high school. If we can manage that, I'm pretty sure most will pick up typing quite well on their own.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
My high school required everyone to type at least 45 WPM in order to graduate. I did this very well... using the hunt and peck method!!
I spent the entire summer before college agonizingly unlearning the wrong muscle memory and learning correct touch-typing. One of the hardest and most stressful things I've ever done. After that my WPM was at like 35, but with time that has grown to the 80WPM I work at now.
Needless to say, the requirement shouldn't be a set WPM, but the ability to touch type without looking a certain range of characters (say upper and lowercase alpha plus the common punctuation). Once this foundation is set, speed will increase proportionally to the amount that the person uses a computer.
...something that could be applied in the course of future employment? Now, that's just crossing the line right there. You know public school is about sharing feelings and enumerating all the ways white American males are evil.
Camping on quad since 1996.
can we standardize on a more sensible key layout that isn't designed to slow you down?
I'm stunned that it isn't required already. I took typing and even did it with a broken finger taped to a popsicle stick but it was one of the best courses I took. It is agonizing to watch someone poking their fingers on a keyboard with their hands moving all over the place and their eyes looking down and up and down and up. So much wasted effort and time and at the same time, businesses let people get away with this too. I've seen developers who can't touch-type and that is pathetic when such a skill means so much to getting the job done. Would you hire a mechanic who used a wrench for a hammer and screwdriver as a chisel? But, it's allowed, it's accepted, and as we have been made aware in this thread, touch-typing is an after thought in our school system so it's unlikely to change.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
This says alot more about how useless most of school is. Typing is important, but what are children doing for 99.99% of the time that learning touch typing can be considered such an important cornerstone.
My case may be out of the ordinary. But in Montana of all places I and everyone else I know had a number of touch typing courses that occured in fourth and fifth grade. Even more shocking perhaps was that we spent 20 days roughly each year for third, fourth, and fifth grade learning and later making little projects with Logo Writer. Is it any wonder that I'm now on /.
I never learned how to type.
To this day, I use an advanced form of hunt-and-peck, where I don't look at the keys but I cross my fingers in odd ways sometimes and I definitely never use home position.
For the last ten years or so, I've made my living as a writer. So go figure.
And besides, this seems like an odd idea to have now. Isn't it the old parents' lament that their kids always know how to use the computer ten times better than they do? How do you get to be fluent on a computer without knowing how to use a keyboard? Seriously -- even in the age of the GUI, what are kids doing with computers if not sending messages to each other?
Breakfast served all day!
I had three long years of mandatory typing.
They were awful and pretty much useless.
I don't type any faster than anyone else, I just use more fingers.
The problem is the KEYBOARD layout. Try learning touch typing for a programming language. It is impossible, even the fastest secretary in the world will struggle with a hello world in Java, C or Ruby.
It is great for financial reports, though.
Ow, Templates!
This is true.
In the US anyway, schools continue to NOT advance with using computers in the classroom--mainly becuase textbook publishers steadfastly refuse to make fully-electronic versions of their materials available.
Additionally--a lot of people won't need typing much, and those that will use it a lot (for business or pleasure) will get gooder at it anyway.
Besides, in about the same time that it would take for US schools to institute a country-wide standard for just one typing course, there will be drastic improvements in voice recognition software and keyboards themselves will disappear from use anyway.
~
I took a touch-typing class in high school in 1992. It was utterly pointless. Touch-typing is learned naturally and quickly by people who use computers regularly, and useless to everyone else. High schools need to focus on the essentials - reading, math, history, logic - and leave specialized skills to the trade schools.
Not everyone can learn to touch type; you either have the necessary talent,
or you don't. Why penalize students who cannot touch type when it just isn't
that useful or necessary, just like calculus and 10-sec 100 meter dash.
I've been a programmer for longer than I care to remember. I took typing
in high school, but never managed to be a touch typist (I memorize enough
at a glance to keep my fingers busy for copying and compose on the fly for
text and programming). I also took calculus in high school (and college),
but have rarely used it since graduate school. I played American football
in high school, too, but have rarely needed to sprint for a 100 yards since
leaving the military.
Offer the option, yes. Mandatory, no.
I'm a software engineer who can't touch type. And I can honestly say that learning wouldn't increase my productivity in any measurable way.
I'm a software engineer who can touch type. And I can honestly say that not knowing how to touch type would decrease my productivity in a measurable way.
That's anecdotal evidence, by the way.
Let's look at the larger picture here. You're correct that the "typing" part only makes up part of what a software engineer does. I'd say about 25-50% of my time is spent typing (not only code, also documentation, e-mails, blog posts on the internal company blog, wiki updates, etc.). Wikipedia says:
An average professional typist reaches 50 to 70 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120.
Two-finger typists, sometimes also referred to as "hunt and peck" typists, commonly reach sustained speeds of about 37 wpm for memorized text, and 27 wpm when copying text but in bursts may be able to reach up to 60 to 70 wpm.
So let's say it's 60 wpm for touch typing (I know I'm quite a bit faster than that, but we want to go with averages) and 37 wpm for two-finger typing.
So, considering all this data: We probably spend about a third of our work time typing, and touch typing is on average roughly 1.6 times as fast as two-finger typing. For an 8-hour work day, that results in 2.7 hours of typing, of which roughly one hour is "wasted" for two-finger typers.
I'd say one hour each day is a measurable increase (or decrease) in productivity.
On top of that touch typing just isn't comfortable for many people.
Then many people learned it wrongly.
Hurt my wrists horribly to try to type like that.
Then your position is incorrect. You really should have learned how to touch type properly :-)
um, what other kind of typing is there? or is this "touch typing" just another retarded redundant Americanism that slithered on to the radar recently?
Proper touch typing is important; improper touch typing (wrong hand position, using the wrong shift key for capitals, etc) can cause physical harm to your hands and wrists. Thus I would say that it is important for children to learn how to touch type properly, even if they only get to really use it at a later date.
I've been employed as a programmer almost continuously since that time; I did contract programming work while I was in high school. Learning to touch type made me much more productive than I'd been before the class. Over the years my typing speed has dramatically improved; the last time I checked it was over 100 wpm, though my accuracy hasn't improved nearly as much.
I think any student that doesn't take a typing class in junior high or high school is doing himself or herself quite a disservice. It's a valuable skill even for someone that doesn't need it for a job. I suspect that it's probably easier to learn typing the earlier you do it.
Okay, okay, we'll give you a seat at the table...keyboard...whatever. Just don't invite the ASSociation of Hunt And Typers School, whatever you do.
coding is life
Pls, I make more money per keystroke than 90% of ppl in the US. I do not touch type.
Why not have a course on how to hold your dick.
My school had a mandatory touch typing class from 1st-5th grade. It was once a week. I didn't really get a good hang of it until maybe 6th grade or so. And it became really good once I got into a CCNA course in high school. Overall I'd say it was a good experience, then again they had a lot of programs by "The Learning Company" for learning to do such things, and it doesn't seem like there are that many programs like that anymore on the market.
I type dvorak. First, I spent many years on the computer on qwerty, before taking a free online lesson 3-4 years back for about 3 hours, and then stopping qwerty cold turkey for several months to reinforce the lesson. It wasn't hard, and there are supposedly even better layouts like Neo (in German):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Tastaturbelegung
Now, I agree with you. Qwerty won the layout war long ago. However, I disagree that it even needs to be a war. Every OS I have encountered easily changes from qwerty to dvorak or hundreds of other layouts with a few clicks from the control panel (or a line on the CLI). The only time I have encountered were on terminals... but as I don't write reports on them, it really doesn't phase me although I could use a dvorak->qwerty webapp if need be.
As to curriculum -> I think we try to teach our kids too much. They don't need to know everything, just learn how to think and expected basic skills. I agree that typing is one of the more important communication methods today. It doesn't matter if they learn qwerty or dvorak or neo... in my above experience, the few hours spent learning one is insignificant, what is significant are typing concepts universal to layouts - home row and the like.
However, we often pile more and more in the pursuit of academic excellence, for every thing we add, why not lighten the burden by removing something archaic? I don't see much use for cursive anymore. The printed word, sure. But everytime I encountered cursive, it usually was someone's illegible scibble, usually a doctor's note the pharmacist will magically decode (or is guessing at) and even that is disappearing (I have seen, using printouts instead). About the only real use is for signatures, which I am sure people will continue to find a way to make their own illegible scribble all their own.
..but I still unlearned it all for Colemak, the best layout for the modern english language.
If they teach everyone to touch type, there won't be any reason to own a keyboard with no markings on the keys.
You're removing both my entertainment when anyone wants to use such a keyboard, and the knowledge that my porn collection is slightly safer!
Well, I took touch typing in high school, and this was back when we used these things called typewriters for typing. (You can google it later) Anyway, I agree with the author that this was one of the most useful courses I took in high school. I went right into computers and in all my early jobs, I typed much faster than anyone else. I always felt that this gave me an edge. It still does.
I would have assumed that touch typing would have been a standard course for years now, and I would have figured it would be bein offered in junior high as well. I guess that would be a wrong assumption? Is it still offered as an elective only? If it is optional, doesn't everyone sign up for it? They should.
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
I started out as kids do, performing simple hunt'n'peck maneuvers. By the time I hit high-school it was well ingrained. At age 19, I wrote a novel of over 1,000,000 characters over a 1.5 year period, averaging four hours a day of just typing. That burned the keyboard layout into me (I would -never- go DVORAK).
Even now, I don't even have to look at the keyboard to type near perfectly, long as my wrists remain still on the rest I don't lose my place. I can even type just as perfectly with my eyes closed or in a dark room by centering on the F and J keys to start. My style is now a mastered form of hunt'n'peck, hunt'n'peck taken to the Nth degree, massively improved through perfect memorization of the keyboard layout and ingrained muscle-memory, such that I can type now about 80 words per minute. It's simply 'think and the words are typed' at this point, as natural as speaking or writing with a pen.
There came a time once that I thought I should improve my typing speed by learning to do real touch-typing the way professional typists must learn. So, I picked up a 'teach me typing' program, and diligently went through the courses for quite some time. I think it was 'Mario Teaches Typing' :P It had which finger you were supposed to use and all that jazz, and I did what it asked to the letter. Used the proper fingers, and arranged my hands as asked.
Only one hitch: my hands began to hurt, a lot. I noticed there was a large amount of unnatural stretching and contortion compared to my mastered hunt'n'peck method in order to reach the key with the 'proper finger', the one the program demanded I use. Now, I didn't simply give up, I wanted to master this technique, I was committed. But, after a month of daily practice I couldn't take it anymore. I was nearly as fast while touch-typing, but my hands were killing me.
I realized then why typists get carpel-tunnel syndrome and the like. Dogmatic touch-typing it terrible for your hands! You need to be able to relax your hands as your type, not stretch and contort them unnaturally. I went back to my freestyle typing and never looked back.
My typing can realistically be called freestyle because, based on what combination of letters and words I'm typing, it could be any number of fingers that are available at the moment to type that key. The difference is, I know I have to hit that key, and it happens quite naturally. I don't use my pinkies to type at all (well, maybe to hit shift), but I use everything else. That's probably the difference between my speed and a professional typist, since 80 WPM isn't really something to sneeze at but a pro typist can hit 50% faster.
But, now I'm attempting to turn myself into a professional author, and typing has become my primary skill, my devotion, my life. I'm glad I never took the touch-typing route! I'm quite certain that I will never develop carpel tunnel or repetitive strain injuries because my hands are relaxed, my fingers don't contort, and typing is done in perfectly natural motion. No overextended fingers, no awkward combinations. No pain.
That's my experience. That's the wisdom I've gained.
"I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist"
... have pretty much the same relevance in our world today.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I took a semester-long typing class in 7th grade back in 1968 or so. I was one of very few males in the class. Now I do tech support. Every day, I see people of all ages struggling to do simple data entry, email, write a letter, etc. I'm not a great typist, but I am so grateful I sat through that class.
Granted I do see hotshot 2 finger typists. But really, there ain't nothin' wrong with helping people master a basic skill.
For the record, the second semester was shorthand which I never used.
I learned 2 different touch typing systems so far (QWERTY and Dvorak). Why?, because I'm unbelievably lazy. QWERTY was the obvious first choice, Dvorak was the improvement on it as I had to put in even less effort for typing after I learned it.
Oh, and by the way, no school thought me this back then. I so dream of the day when schools start to do comprehensive education for life, but I guess that won't ever happen.
Anyway, I'll never understand people, who sit in front of a screen 8 hours a day and use the 2 finger search system for typing. Seems so infinitely more work intensive. But non adaptive people still love to it.
> Additionally--a lot of people won't need typing much, and those that will use it a lot (for business or pleasure) will get gooder at it anyway.
Unlike English composition skills, which seem never to "get gooder".
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I think it's a great idea to add this to a school's required course. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a computer in the early 80s and being only about 6 or 7 years old my dad made me learn to type with a simple program in DOS. It was probably the best thing he has ever made me do in my life!
gave me a head start for writing and with computers
...right.
Most of my college age friends type 90wpm, accurately, as they have been typing all their lives.
No, the world is not what you left it 40 years ago.
... bout 10 years ago and to me it was the biggest waste of time, it took me two sessions to type out the terms work. being a budget school it was on typewriters too.
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
Something that should be taught at home. Or at school. Or at parties. Or, you know, wherever.
rewriting history since 2109
I've kept trying to tell my own kids that out of all the classes I took in HS, typing has helped me the most.
Sure math and english were important, don't get me wrong, but the typing helped the most.
BWP
I remember back in my primary school days, they had a few "touch typing games" on cd's in the library. The only problem was, that the games were so simplistic and easy that you could look at the keyboard and still win. My breakthrough in touch typing didn't come through until I started online gaming, and before I could be bothered to get a mic. I got sick of getting killed while trying to type, so developed my touchtyping skills that way, and I am sure that many others. As for teaching it in schools, I'm all for gaming to be a subject. Little late for me, but I'm sure everyone else would enjoy it.
When I was at school, we were taught binary arithmetic. Computers, we were told, couldn't do arithmetic in decimal numbers, only in binary, and if we ever wanted to work with computers we would have to be able to do binary arithmetic. Meantime, many of the girls in the school spent hours every week learning to use mechanical tabulator machines, because, as everyone knows, every business in the world needs an army of girls with mechanical tabulators to keep their accounts in order...
Both these skills were completely obsolete before we even left school. Similarly with touch typing. Voice recognition and speech to text is now at a level where it's extremely unlikely that keyboards will be more than a vague memory for mainstream users by the time people now in school are thirty.
For heaven's sake don't waste people's time in school teaching them to use ephemeral, obsolescent technologies. Teach them to use their brains, and teach them fundamental principles. Teach them to learn. Workplace skills can be taught in the workplace, and will in any case change far too rapidly for schools to keep pace.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
My High School did have such courses. They were mandatory, and I did attend. I was advised by the teacher to avoid keyboards as I did not have the aptitude. I've been an IT professional for the following 20+ years, and it (frankly) hasn't been an obstacle - I've coded for years, and written more than I care to remember. IT is not about typing - it's more about adaptability, analytical skills, communications, and problem solving. It would be far better if schools invested in teaching pupils more useful general skills, such as communications, problem solving, presentation skills and teamwork.
I was always typing with 3 fingers/hand and thumbs for the space. My fingers were going left to right depending on what my brain thought was a logical direction and every now and then I had to look at the keyboard to resynchronise my fingers. It worked, wasn't anywhere close to touch typing the way it's supposed to be, but mostly blind. Then a year ago I took a natural keyboard at work and realized my right hand was doing left hand characters and v.v. which is very awkward on a natural keyboard. So I decided to drop qwerty and changed to dvorak. With a bit of help of the kde touch typing program I slowly got back to my old speed in typing. I'm now slightly faster in dvorak, use all fingers and don't look at the keyboard anymore. Switching to touch typing if used to three finger qwerty is a pain, combine it with learning dvorak and switch to natural keyboard (less wrist pains and awkward hand positions): win. I can really recommend that. :)
Weird thing now is that if I see a natural keyboard I automagically type dvorak and with a "normal" keyboard I automagically switch to qwerty without making mistakes. The brain is a weird thing
I guess my grade school was ahead of the curve. Back around 1986 when I was in 4th grade we were taken into our school's computer room, full of apples and taught to type. We were then given a plastic mat with a drawing of the keyboard on it and told to practice at home. At school we put a cloth over the keyboard so we could type blind.
Junior high (7th and 8th grade) there were no typing classes but there were some opportunities to type.
In high school we had a 9th grade required class, something like "computer literacy" which I think touched on typing. Finally, I took two semesters of typing because I already knew it from grade school.
I intend to teach my children typing at home if they don't learn it in a classroom. Until some new input method is created, it really is a great skill to have and I'd agree it's almost as important as reading and math.
Touch-typing has taken over from cursive as the essential skill for written communication.
Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
You'd think that my parents who were born in an age where personal computers weren't invented and ENIAC was still at its infancy that they would know how to use a typewriter.
But that's not true either. The schools had probably thought them how to use a typewriter yet they're just as bad on a computer as we all are with handwriting.
Me? I learn how to type because of necessity you insensitive clod! You'd be dead if you can't cast 'magic missile' ogre fast enough!
I guess my kids were lucky, they had touch typing in grade 3. They had keyboards that were a bit smaller to accommodate smaller hands.
The teacher taught them to not look at their hands while typing.
I took typing in grade 9, and it was the most practical course I ever took.
My kids are done high school and they all type faster then me, and I go around 70 wpm.
I could never get the hang of typing in those damn classes. what really got me typing was quake.
How quaint!
I think if we're going to make touch typing classes mandatory (which is a good idea) then hand writing classes should also be on the curriculum. I can't speak for the US, but certainly in the UK I know that writing is mostly forgotton about when in school. In my early early years good handwriting was encouraged but apart from a few months of handwriting lessons, it was never really taught. Also I think somehow kids need to be veered away from the habit of shorthand typing and use of so many abbreviations, it's getting progressively worse over the years how kids type and it's bleeding into how they write. I've read a couple of my younger sister's coursework for school and was gobsmacked (and kind of amused!) to see "OMG" and "LOL" in character dialogue. This is kind of off topic and besides the point, but communication is becoming more and more impersonal as time goes on and it's damaging. If we teach some sort of "communication" lesson which could encompass this kind of thing then it might be beneficial.
I don't get it. I can type very fast on a QWERTY keyboard (although I didn't learn touchtyping), and I can type almost as fast on Russian JCUKEN keyboard, and there was time I had to use russian YAWERTY keyboard and I was typing faster than average (and I am not a genius, either). Given that, I am sure I can master Dvorak too and add it to my arsenal. No need to XOR it is a good old OR, guys.
What nonsense is this? Touch typing can be useful if 1) you write a lot and 2) you use a keyboard. But, if you write a lot on a keyboard, you will inevitably get fluent at typing; this is not a fundamental skill, like the others - it is only a single skill.
In fact, there are many other skills that are far more fundamental, such as basic cookery, childcare and general life-management that would be far more beneficial for young people to learn. It is appalling to see how many young families rely on cheap and nasty ready-meals because the very concept of boiling an egg, baking a bread or preparing a simple meal is alien to them. And I would say that the current financial crisis has a lot to do with a culture where young families rely completely on easy credit because they have never learned to manage their private finances. Touch typing, or even "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic", won't give you the life skills needed for that.
being an engineer, I'm working on a computer all day long. And I don't care about typing fast.
The time is not spent typing, it is spent thinking. If I can think better I'll benefit, if I can type faster - nothing will change at all. Same, I think, applies to any other brain-intensive occupation that has it's outcome types into a computer.
This is just a specific skill. Unlike ability to read, or do math, or draw, or being in a good physical shape, it does not enable anything else except itself. Schools should not spend time on specific skills. School time is too limited and valuable for that.
Maybe this is different than the experiences of many, but my *middle school* in 6th grade had a mandatory touch typing class for everyone. This was 10 years ago.
>>I do not (repeat do NOT) use the "home keys"
>I can understand getting away with not using the ';', but this post itself contains all the home keys.
I tore out type ere I wrote, to type up top:
upper typewriter row, pert repertoire.
Reporter, I quote to you: To write, pop type out.
Retire typewriter row two. Your tri-row?
Rip it out, too. Tour your top row territory.
Queer tip, you retort? I worry your poor typewriter?
To torque it out -- typewriter terror?
You require row two, your tri-row prop?
You pout, try to quip. (Poor etiquette.) You titter.
(Poorer propriety.) You utter uppity output?
Quiet, you! Quit it! You purport to write.
I tire to peer to your rot, your petty writ,
to eye your wire report. You write pyrite,
terrier to torpor. I pity you, preppie yuppie.
I tutor you, tyro, to uproot your trite tree,
put type to pyre. Rupture type. Write to write.
I erupt. I riot. I prototype pure power
to write. I, upper typewriter requiter.
I outwit you, too. To perpetuity, I write poetry.
You, to put it true, putter out rote poop.
(with regards to Nick Montfort)
You never know when you'll have to paint a picture or explain the rules of table tennis. Those too are important subjects.
The world has changed in the last fifty years. When is the last time you've seen a typewriter or for that matter a secretary. The current education system is setup for teaching people to be factory workers. Fifty years ago the the number of people going to college was less than a quarter what it is today. Technology, and in particular online education, is the only way to cost effectively offer differentiated education. The other option is using 1:1 teaching, which which we don't have the talent level or resources for. Maybe the change we are looking for is to migrate teachers into computer lab monitors.
Typing is an important skill. Whilst a lot of people who use a computer 8 hours a day can end up typing relatively quickly using two or three fingers on each hand, to take it to the next level does require learning the basics properly.
I've taken typing courses and whilst I don't type exactly as per the proper method, using all fingers all the time, I'm a lot quicker than I would have been had I just learnt by doing it. As boring as the exercises were at the time, they were a great benefit to me later on in life. After doing a typing course, I wasn't touch typing properly, but I was able to use most fingers to hit the correct keys and looking at the keyboard about half the time. Over time, by practising more, I can now type without looking at the keyboard. As a side effect of a modern life in front of a computer, I can now type significantly faster than I can write by hand.
Interestingly enough, a lot of typing courses focus on learning the keyboard and accuracy - from the days of typewriters where a mistake was either a "type the whole page again" event, or it significantly slowed you down as you got out the white-out. Now, I don't think that accuracy is as critical as it used to be, but the speed is very important.
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
By the same reasoning, cooking should be mandatory, as would a number of other subjects. I would argue that there are few people leaving school that require touch typing, even in this keyboard centric world, that's why we have GUIs. :)
There was an unknown error in the submission.
On the other hand, I knew how to type so well by the time I got to school that my mandatory touch-typing classes in middle and high school were a giant waste of time. Go figure.
Some schools require this sort of education, I guess it isn't federally mandated or something though.
We're in the midst of a veritable education crisis right now where I live. Record numbers of kids, especially poor and minority kids, are functionally illiterate. A study cosponsored by the NAACP found that nearly 70% of all black middle and high school students in my school system were functionally illiterate. Over a third of all white students from the same age groups were also functionally illiterate. That is both unacceptable and nearly without precedent. For the first time since the early twentieth century, we could be looking at a generation of graduates whose reading ability cannot be guaranteed. I was lucky; in sixth grade I could read and write at what was considered graduate level. (Which is a passable, functional level of literacy, but doesn't imply anything close to a full command of the English language.) In my senior year of high-school, most kids in my senior class - yes, most - could only read and write at the sixth grade level. Many of these people were still graduating high school.
Touch typing is a necessary workplace skill by all means, but with so many utterly dysfunctional education systems around - especially now that on a national level we're yoked to NCLB, which is nothing but trouble - things like basic literacy (and basic math, history, science, logic, critical thinking, even recess of all things) are going by the wayside. It seemed like it used to be that schools were only this bad in the south and slummy inner city districts, but the problems of southern school systems are creeping into the midwest and the north at an alarming rate, and further away from the cities as well. Typing, like writing, is a useless skill without literacy, and considering how the touch-typing class I had in high school was crap anyway I'd much rather those resources be committed to making sure future generations of students aren't pants-on-head retarded by the time they graduate.
I have my secretary type everything for me. It would be much better if there were more people with his typing skills, so the increased competition would lower my cost.
Back 20 years ago when I was in the 8th grade, we had mandatory touch-typing class. No exemption. Then from high school (9th grade and on), all our essays for English class was required to be completed using either a typewriter or word processor. At the time, my father was actually a bit upset, because he thought it was putting a divide between kids who's families could afford a computer, and those that couldn't. (This was 1989, remember, not in the day and age of cheap computers.) In hind sight I would say he was absolutely right about the divide, but wrong in that the "divide" was artificially imposed on students alone and would not exist after graduation.
Now, the mandatory typing class alone probably wouldn't have done much. There were students that could care less, and barely got by. However, following up on it with typing required for other classes, meant that everyone in my class was at least an average typer by the time they graduated high school. Not bad really. Most people would have eventually learned how to type, but I still have friends that never "learned" it, who type oddly. That is to say, they are limited in the maximum speed and accuracy they can achieve due to their "original" typing methods. I'm not saying my typing is perfect, I have quirks, like almost never using the right shift key etc. but for the most part I still type properly, which has not only speed implications, but accuracy as well.
for mandatory touch typing lessons beyond the more general case for better computer-related education in general (Which is not saying much more than the even more general 'better education means better educated civilians). But even that wouldn't help most people anyway. Exposure is enough, without formal training being necessary.
If someone really wants to pump up their WPM or master some sort of formal technique, they are welcome to go learn on their own initiative. Touch typing is something anyone with a computer - i.e. almost everyone in the industrialised world - can learn quite easily on their own initiative. If they don't have that initiative in the first place, then training is pointless.
When I did mandatory PE lessons at school, I learnt techniques for things like football ('soccer') tennis volleyball basketball cricket swimming kayaking sprinting long distance running blah blah blah. I considered the entire thing dull, pointless, too much effort. I frankly did not give a shit about PE and used every opportunity to kill the time on my own terms rather than deciding to train myself up to be as much of an athlete as possible within the time allotted. I have had countless hours of PE lessons and I have never even considered being an athlete or sportsman of any description; I have never had any touch typing training of any description and yet I touch type simply out of familiarity and desire for efficiency when using a computer (My keys are rearranged to spell my name, good for confusing people who want to use my system).
Replace PE with TT and the incidence of pupils behaving and feeling as I did would likely increase dramatically. If people want to get good at football, they'll play it on their own time with friends, they don't need lessons to discover and learn that sort of thing. With touch typing the need for school lessons is even more unnecessary. It's a step away from schools teaching something as completely irrelevant as 'proper walking technique' or 'how to make a cup of tea.'
the technologies are now being developed which will eventually allow even faster data manipulation with direct mind interfaces that will make keyboards [obselete]
While there is certainly amazing progress being made in the areas of eye-tracking and brain-interface systems (initially much more important for quadriplegics and those with various locked-in syndromes), I can imagine some awkward issues with a direct brain interface. It might be good for games etc, but you wouldn't want it at work - I can see the xkcd.com cartoon now:
*office setting, one guy plugged into the new system and his workmate is shoulder surfing, seeing how good the new thought-activated interface works*
*hot chick from accounting walks past (both guys look), then she bangs knee on a chair "ow!"..*
*computer announces "accessing google results for 'hot amputee action', please wait..."*
Workmate: "woah, you're twisted"
*first guy is frantically stabbing the Esc key, comp continues "found stumpsex.com, logging in with remembered details"*
Workmate: "Dude..."
xD
Isnt Sports and Arts what it should have been is credit cards, Banking, how to buy a house, how to get a loan, how to establish credit, paying bills, shopping for groceries, how to get and maintain a job, drivers ed, and im sure a whole handful of other things I could add but you get my drift. Seriously when was the last time you went into bestbuy and told them when the cival war was and they gave you a laptop? when was the last time your bank/landlord accepted that you can do trig for rent? or when the grocery store took state capitols as a payment??? I mean you learn most of this bullshit by 8th grade. Spend the next 4 years on how to live the next 75 years. Do a bit of touch up on the reading writing arithmetic during those 4 years but the core of high school should be life sustaining courses. Not rehash of the same curriculum you have learned for the past 12 years. Thats what college is for.
Visit my Forums?
First post! Wait, what? Dammit! If only I knew how to use more than one finger to type and had learned this invaluable skill in high-school..
[Slashdot Comments We Liked]
Want improved education? Just shut down government schools.
No one needs to learn touch-typing. You learn it by yourself. I didn't learn it in school but with all those years of typing on a keyboard, I learned it. I can say I type fast enough.
I graduated in software engineering and I'd say that about 70% of all classes I had in my life was a complete waste of time. This would just be another one of those.
I think I'd much rather see more emphasis on proper spelling and grammar before typing. We don't need the aolspeak kiddies cranking out hard to read sentences any faster than they already do. But in all seriousness, we should teach kids how to type in school. I had a typing elective, and it helped a lot.
anti-Apple stance. /.ers unite!
I grew up with computers round the house. I started learning BBC BASIC when I was 8, and when we got our own computer (Acorn A3000) I started programming games for myself, brother and friends.
;-)
I saw my mum type one day, and was in owe of the speed and wanted to learn. She taught me and I am for ever greatfull. I feel sorry for programmers with more years under their belt than me, almost single finger typing. True, mostly in programming, raw speed isn't important, but it is sometimes, and it is as a user of any text program. I will be passing it on to my children, but not everyone will have the advantage of parents able to teach them, and because of that, it should be taught in school.
I blame the masses not being able to type for the fall of the buckle spring keyboard!
Qwerty has been around since the 1870s. Touch typing has been relevant for 140 years and counting. That's a pretty good record, especially as the primary input device for what might be called the cornerstone of modern technology. Every nerd looking around for a better mousetrap to build has had the keyboard in front of them, daring them to make something better. Dictation software has been trying to supplant it for about 20 years or more. And failing. For most of the reasons written here: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/01/25/0616247.shtml
I'm going to make sure my kids can touch type, and there is a good chance they will do 90+wpm like their dad. This will enable them to procr^H^H^H^H^Hget work done far faster than other kids (not to mention speeding up the feedback loops involved in keyboard related learning, making learning computers less frustrating, etc.), especially the kids of those who are trusting in the invisible hand to build a better keyboard. They'll be learning faster in the interim anyway, getting as much learning in before they inevitably discover the opposite sex.
So why do you think voice recognition and speech to text will supplant the keyboard as the primary means of inputting text (and controlling text editors etc. like vim)? If you can make a good case, I'll read attentively.
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
I had a typing as an elective about 30 years ago. I never did particularly well, in part because I had a manual typewriter at home and had already adopted the two-finger pound as my style of choice. To this day I type with three of four fingers on each hand. I also look at the keys.
However, despite all that, I type 55-60 words per minute so it's not worth it to me to retrain myself. In addition, since my hands are never trapped in the home position and take turns visiting alternate sides of the keyboard, I can type all day long without ever getting RSI symptoms.
surely this is a joke, no?
anyone who has to use a keyboard on a daily basis will type fast in a few months anyway. Touch typing at school can never even come close to fundamental sciences like maths or physics.
I have never learned a technique of sort for typing, yet I type 90wpm (been a programmer for 3 years). I believe this is a skill which people would develop at the workplace nevertheless of the previous education or not.
Some of us might have taken your point more seriously if you hadn't misspelled "a lot" as a single word -- something that would have been covered in that other 99.99% of elementary school.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to change their style of grammar from a classically respected form but tricky for modern people to understand when spoken, a decent respect for honest questions like yours posted on slashdot the land of the lost digital volcano of forgotten memes, a decent respect for the considerations of linguistic theory and etiquette impels us to declare the reasons for the modernization of grammar.
.
I trust you got the reference. That's great fun to read with your favorite beverage at home, but try that in an office and watch the phone ring.
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Rudolf Flesch worked on the idea of slicing down corporate communication because finesse is despised rather than appreciated. I think he's the great-grandparent of Texting.
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See how much fun short word counts are?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Flesch
(My periods are poor-man's line breaks until I figure them out later.)
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
You mean to say it isn't already where you live? It is here in Quebec, at the High School my step-daughter goes to.
Just get them "Typing of the Dead" and watch their (typing) speed and accuracy increase dramatically.
Touch-typing does NOT help support the goose-quill pen or octopus-ink industry. The loss would be unbearable. Did Herodotus use a keyboard or Jefferson a hard-drive --- eh ? Didn't think so ? For 20-K years goose-quills & octopus-ink have supported the finest human thought ... and BTW the bleach industry for removing splotches and spatters. Big thoughts like big splotches require a totally analog format. Consider the loss if T. Paine had typed crabbily ... instead of scripting in elegent hand . Yep; no handwriting no America.
You can learn the basics of how to touch-type in a 2-week course -- probably a few days if you are focused. The rest is just practice, practice, practice, and caring about your error rate as you go along. You don't need to spend a whole school term at it. If touch-typing courses are available at a school, that's great. But making it part of the core curriculum with the same emphasis as reading, writing, and arithmetic? That seems silly. Just set a reasonable required WPM (minus errors by the usual measure) that students have to achieve by year X, tell them the school lab is available for training on a 2-week cycle, and let them sort it out in their off-class periods. Typing is not a "cornerstone of education", and it isn't something that requires the same devotion to seeing that students succeed at it as reading, writing and arithmetic (and, I would argue, science). Keep the resources focused where they should be.
When I was in grade school (back in the early 70s), one of my teachers suggested that anyone intending to go to university should take typing in high school as they'd save a lot of money by being able to type their own papers. Sounded good to me, so I followed through on the advice. While it didn't save me money having my papers typed (as a comp sci student, I wrote no papers), it's been amazingly helpful as a programmer. Kudos to Mr Staska.
linquendum tondere
You mean that retarded way in which you have to keep your fingers on the home row all the time you're not pressing a key, and you're not even allowed to glance at the keyboard?
Thats how my school used to teach "touch typing". It was anything but fast. Later I adopted a style that keeps my fingers hovering above my keyboard and I use seven fingers for all my typing needs (eight if you count the thumb, but all that ever does is hit either space or command).
Kids in our school district have typing lessons in I think 3rd or 4th grade. Both of our kids could touch type by 5th grade.
Mavis Beacon
Like any early age training, make it a game, and Mavis Beacon does. My kids loved it and were proficient typists by the fourth grade. When my son discovered he could enhance an on-line game he enjoyed by writing macros, he was on his way.
Pacifist paratroopers yell, "Ghandi!" when they jump.
I saw many early responses saying that touch typing isn't useful or you're too old to change now... both ignorant comments. I took touch typing in 9th grade in 1975 and it helped me some in high school but once I hit college and got to type on computer keyboards I really saw the benefit. Hunt/peck is just too slow, typing that way at 30-40wpm is nothing compared to being able to go 70-120wpm as a touch typist. Regarding age... you can still learn/relearn fairly easily up until about 50. After that your body is less capable of producing myelin (which is part what allows you to learn new things)
OK, the tacit assumption here is that keyboards will still be used some 30, 40, 50, ... years from now. How do you know your kids won't be cursing you when they grow up, because they wasted time learning such an obsolete thing in school just because their parents thought they're living in the coolest period of history ever, and therefore have the right to decide what skills will be useful for the rest of eternity?
I work in primary schools - the kids can touch type and need no help, certainly not from a hunt-and-peck typist of a teacher which is all I see all day long. The "home keys" nonsense shouldn't be taught how it is. The "don't look at the screen" is a real false-start... the kids will learn to do that over time, like not looking down at the pedals once they know how to pedal a bike.
What they do need to "unlearn" are certain tricks taught early on:
- DO NOT use CapsLock as a one-key shift... CapsLocks, H, Capslock, e, l, l, o. DRIVES ME MAD. And is actually the reasoning behind most people shouting or never using capital letters on instant messengers.
- Use multiple keys like shift, ctrl, alt to get used to strange key combinations.
- LEARN the key combinations for some programs (don't worry about if they have to "unlearn" them later, it's just to get them used to keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-S, etc.).
- DO NOT use the numeric keypad for single digits - use it only for intense calculations... otherwise you're slowing yourself down by taking your hand away from the QWERTY keys anyway.
Leave the kids to learn, provide some pointers, they'll have learned to "touchtype" within a couple of months of starting at a new school (depending on when they start IT, obviously) with only one or two hours or IT a week. I never had any formal lessons in it (that's a lie: let's say, none before I could type at least 90wpm anyway) and didn't need any. The home key thing STILL bugs me because, yes, I hover them, but it's taught as if taking your fingers from the keyboard is a crime... it's not. And using the wrong finger doesn't matter unless you start to "stumble" all over the keyboard as a result. I never worried about blind-touch-typing, it was a waste of time, and I picked it up anyway.
Apart from touch typing, given the extreme explosion of information, speed reading will help our children. It is no longer reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. But faster reading, faster wRiting (touch typing). We have calcs and comps for faster aRithmetic.
O this learning! What a thing it is - William Shakespeare
Besides, in about the same time that it would take for US schools to institute a country-wide standard for just one typing course, there will be drastic improvements in voice recognition software and keyboards themselves will disappear from use anyway.
I'm a fast talking New Yorker, but this sentiment always cracks me up. Even those who can't touch type are still able to type significantly faster than they speak. There are exceptions like paraplegics and other significantly disabled folks and I hope they will benefit from drastic improvements in voice recognition and other new or improved input methods.
My high school did actually have a mandatory Intro to Computers class, with a required typing speed in order to pass... 15 WPM. A typing speed that for all intents and purposes is the same as teaching calligraphy in place of handwriting. In any job where typing is a requirement, 15 WPM is completely useless. And many people in my class couldn't do it. They spent what felt like months trying to figure it out and cursing the teacher for giving such an unnecessarily stringent requirement.
25 years ago, I signed up for a typing class in high school summer school after my father recommended it as the single most important skill that I'd need. I attended 2 classes, then found a summer job that interfered with the class and dropped it. This was before computers were in many homes.
Mom found typing training in a magazine and I followed the instructions to learn what I could over the rest of the summer. Really, just the next few days, then I would copy a page of type every day to stay current and get the muscle memory. We're talking under 10 min/day on a typewriter, no less.
Then I went off to college and used punch cards for computer classes. A little typing, but mistakes were costly, so no touch-typing attempted. I worked as a computer programmer on TSO after college. No touch typing used there either.
Then I took a job where UNIX wasn't required for me, but I decided to learn it. Within 2 weeks, I was touch typing again without any remedial practice needed. That was 15 years ago. I have no idea how fast I can type, but it is faster than a teenage girl does. I've been using the same IBM 101 keyboards for 15 years except on DEC, Sun, HP or laptops when I had to be on the console. I bring my keyboard to work and have a few spares.
There's no need to waste an entire semester learning to type. It takes just a few weeks followed by 10 minutes a day for a few more weeks. Kids, don't waste your time in a class, unless it is a "mini-class". That's all you need.
Is it just me, or would such an addition to the syllabus simply re-inforce the stereotype that those who do less well at school (in reading, writing, arithmetic, and touch-typing) will become our bus-drivers, laborers, cleaners, bar-tenders and politicians?
I effectively taught myself touchtyping on BBC Micros back in the 80s, back then the keys were 'real' keys and not these crappy membrane things that seem to have taken over the world.
I'm touch typing this on an Asus Eee and always get a kick out of friends who are unable to type with more than two fingers when they say stuff like "he's even correcting mistakes before I even noticed" when watching me type.
Not much else to say really other than maybe if computers had mobile phone keypads instead of qwerty keyboards then more kids would use computers faster? But saying that I can do 99% of what I need to on a PC without having to stray away from the mouse, it's just that last 1% where keyboards are infinitely faster than a mouse.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
If they're busy taking notes, they're not learning. They're just stenographers at that point.
The first thing I did when I taught computers (grades 4 to 6) was tell the students that we weren't going to be using the computers. At first, they were disappointed - but I made the discussions (note - discussion, NOT lectures) interesting enough that they quickly forgot about the "boxes". Good teachers interact with their students. We say that ne of the biggest reasons for failure in business is lack of communications, but our teachers are, for the most part, TERRIBLE communicators; is it any wonder that when people enter the business world, they accept the same crappy "lefture-style" mode of organizing work that dooms them to failure?
Better to fire half the teachers, and give the students to the other half. I never had a problem keeping 30-some-odd kids involved - teachers who cry about having more than 15 should be fired because they are clearly incompetent.
I'm a little concerned about individual variation in optimal typing methods for people with special needs or who are just less coordinated. For instance, I have rather poor control in my the last two fingers of each hand--it's probably a brain issue--and I end up typing with about six to ten fingers, at 100 wpm when I am trying to be fast, without using any system I had been taught. (I don't want or need more speed--with more speed I'd be getting ahead of my thinking too much.)
I was a clumsy and uncoordinated kid, and still am clumsy and uncoordinated in my mid 30s. They taught ten-finger touch-typing along with Logo programming in a summer program when I was in grade six, but it just wasn't natural to me and I didn't get above 30 wpm. I learned ten-fingered Dvorak touch-typing at around 18 (I think I wrote the keyboard driver myself). I think I reached about 60-80 wpm, but did not find the experience of ten-fingered typing comfortable, though I did it for somewhat elitist reasons, I think. (I remember that whenever I would sit at the particular Dvorak-equipped computer, I found it extremely hard to type in QWERTY--despite QWERTY labels on the keys--when my Dvorak driver wasn't working.) I wrote a PhD dissertation on the Dvorak system, in LaTeX.
And then I went back to QWERTY. And I've fallen into an untaught, unconscious rhythm that gets me higher speed than either the QWERTY or Dvorak touch-typing. I find it extremely natural to type most of the letter keys with about five fingers, use the thumbs for space, use the little fingers only for shifts, etc. (I don't actually know how I do it. It's too fast for me to notice the details.) This is completely unplanned, messy, no teacher would allow it, but for me is faster and less tiring than standard ten-fingered QWERTY or Dvorak. It's touch typing in the sense that I don't have to look at the keyboard (except maybe at some of the less commonly used symbol keys). Gives me 100 wpm, doesn't tire me, so what more do I want?
On the other hand, it did me no harm to be taught standard touch-typing. It ensured I knew all the key positions with tactile memory and that's crucial.
Okay, I got my first computer, with keyboard, about 1980.
I didn't take a typing class for another 7 years. And the only reason I took it was it was the prerequisite for the few computer classes of the day my high school actually offered.
And it was one of the few classes I came close to failing in.
Why? Because you do NOT use a computer with word processing software the same way you do a typewriter. The only things they have in common are:
A: You sit in front of both machines.
B: They both have QWERTY keyboards
C: The end result of both is a page of text.
Typewriting places emphasis on correct typing form. You look at your sample document and don't look at what you're actually typing until the end. Even on a nice electric typewriter with correction functions.
Word processing is different. You're encouraged to do in-line correction and look at what you're typing every now and again to make sure you haven't screwed up badly, necessitating the retyping of half the page or more.
This behavior was so firmly ingrained in me by this time that I nearly failed the class because of it. Why? Every time I'd look over, even if I didn't begin correcting anything, and went right back to typing, the teacher would take a full letter grade off my paper. So I'd turn in near-perfectly typed pages and get a failing grade.
Needless to say, very long, very LOUD discussions with the high school administration ensued over just this subject.
I was allowed to bypass the second half of the class, and the next year the typing prereq was dropped.
It still did a number on my GPA though.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I once wrote up a list of classes that I think should be taught to every student before they graduate from high school. Touch typing was on the list around number fourteen. I think it would be great to teach it in schools, but I still can't believe they don't teach even more fundamental and useful mental tools like: informal logic, the rhetorical method, applying the scientific method (why is it 90% of science class just have kids memorize facts about technology and physics?), critical evaluation, memorization techniques, research and statistical evaluation, etc.
After my Dad had been drafted into the army for Vietnam, his ability to touch type helped keep him in the US as the company clerk rather being shot at in South Asia.
As a result, my sister and I were strongly encouraged to take the semester long typing course in high school.
But I question the benefit of touch typing for the masses. If you cannot speak a coherent paragraph, nor write a coherent paragraph in long hand, you probably won't be able to touch type a coherent paragraph either.
First of all proponents of adding touch typing need to understand the first rule of school curriculums - in order to add something new you must first remove something else. Is it going to be science? math? Secondly, most people don't need mad speedz typing skillz. I mostly do my typing in LATEX where the amount of information entering my pc is limited by my brain not my fingers. I'm pretty sure it's also true for software developers. Also, I've noticed that most people will eventually develop a touch typing system of their own, maybe not the most efficient but comfortable. I personally use 2-3 fingers touch typing method.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
Suffering from synaesthesia, are we?
Interesting is seeing of sounds, hearing of colours, tasting of posts on slushduh!
My Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 had this problem, and I fixed it by pulling the spacebar forward using adhesive tape. The build quality and key action is still very poor, but at least now the spacebar doesn't jam when I press it in a corner. Despite the problems this is the best keyboard I've used because of the superior layout. I comfortably touch type 80wpm+ using self taught incorrect technique.
Clearly we should get ahead of the curve by teaching children how to speed-talk. People should be able to do 200wpm, even without developing a oral "shorthand".
Touch typing class got me started using the correct technique... but what gave me the practice to become good at it was chatting with the girls ;)
This likely to become law just in time to obsoleted by voice recognition software. Honestly, I think going to all the trouble to implement it is not worth it just for that reason. All the proponents are saying it was a wonderful investment of their time. Learning to ride a horse used to a good investment too.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
My junior high school years ago had a required "computers and careers" course that we had to take for a trimester. Of course, with it being just a trimester, you had enough time to accomplish... well, nothing. But that's besides the point.
One of the goals of the class was to get people to touch-type at 20 WPM. Big goal for a class of 8th graders. When we began doing the typing training, I found that I was able to easily do a hunt-and-peck at a consistent 35 WPM using nothing more than my two index fingers, and maybe a middle finger for backspace, or something to that effect. By the end of the course, I was able to do my hunt-and-peck, minus the hunt, at 70 WPM. My instructor was quite strict about the touch-type bit, but when he realized that in that class of 8th graders, I blew everyone out of the water, he let it slide for me.
Ever since that class, I've never used touch-typing. I've continued to just use a few select fingers to do the typing, and I average ~120 WPM. I don't know many touch-typists personally who can do that. Shoot, in 5th grade on the night before a paper was due, I used to have my mom (a retired computer programmer) type my papers for me as I dictated them to her. She's a touch-typist (one who used to think she was so very fast at typing...), and I likely could triple her speed on a good day.
Could I potentially be faster with touch-typing? Perhaps. Am I just fine without it? Sure am. Don't make touch-typing mandatory. I'm 100% positive that I'll still be faster with my typing method than anyone who was in that class with me. But I will never touch-type.
Also, one of the first comments listed indicated that typing should not be forced upon students. I must say, I completely agree. How did I learn how to type as fast as I do? I trolled forums. Find someone you completely disagree with, and get into a flame war with him. Typing speed is directly proportional to RAGE.
I was born in 1984 and I took typing and computer courses in the 4th and 6th grades and would've in 9th grade but demonstrated I could type already instead. So I have to say: Old news?
I was in grade 10 in 1972, but my brothers, 7 and 9 years older, got the same treatment: forced to take "Typing 10" in a nearly all-girl classroom when the only point to it was as a first course towards a secretarial career. In my case, they'd turned it into a full-year course, the second half of which was beyond just typing and into various formats for business letters, filing systems, and so on. I got bored and managed to drop out after taking a test (51%, whew).
Mom's point was that typing was a generally useful skill, like being able to hammer nails. She wasn't thinking we'd become secretaries, just able to type our college papers without pain. She'd taken touch-typing in the 40's and never been a secretary but never regretted it.
Electric typewriters were still rare in 1972, the Apple ][ still in the future, so how much less excuse is there now for not calling it a "basic skill"? For me, it's been huge. A lot of IT work is very verbose and repetitive; I do SQL all day long some days, with tiresome table/column names like INFRANET_SW.WTR_HYDRANT.WH_VALVE_DIRECTION. (Or, yes, I can take my hands from the keyboard, move the mouse to the panel that's the list of tables, scroll down to the hydrant table, click on it, look down the column-panel for the column name, and click...which takes at least as long...if you touch type; or much longer than typing if you don't).
We still don't really know what evolution is.
It's a biological process of a species' adaptation to the environment over generations through natural selection of advantageous mutations. Even biblical literalists, who believe that God flooded all inhabited areas of the planet about 4,300 years ago, tend to accept evolution as a theory explaining the rapid speciation after the flood drastically changed the environment.
Nor do we know who Jeasus really was (or if he even existed)
Jesus is a professional baseball player.
Plenty of schools already teach touch-typing, mine did a little 20 years ago.
In any case, speech recognition is improving, and the keyboard won't last forever - why teach kids to type at 100wpm when they can speak at 160+?
My months of real logged on typing time on MUDS was invaluable. You basically learned to type fast and accurate or you died.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
No offense intended to the poster, but that is still too "Old Guard" thinking. Typing should be systemic in the curriculum (used in every class) by high school. It should be taught in elementary school
People who have a tendency to make up rules for other people just because it suits themselves should be killed.
It will help speed along evolution a lot faster.
I tried learning to touch type several times, but it just didn't work for me. Not everything works for everyone, and making something mandatory just because you think it increases efficiency is rather draconian. Math, certainly. Science... eeeeeeeeeeeh, alright. But touch typing? Seriously, go find another hobby other than making up rules.
Years later I started learning to play an electronic keyboard, and that combined with me typing at a computer started to hurt my wrists and fingers. So I did a little online research and switched to a Dvorak keyboard. Within a week the pain disappeared. I was able to play my music keyboard and type on my computer keyboard without a problem.
What's more?
I learnt to touch type! But without trying to learn it. It just came naturally with a Dvorak keyboard!
So why not make it mandatory to have a Dvorak keyboard available to all students?
When you start making up rules that affect large social systems, it is imperative that they actually reflect the needs and wants of that social system. It should always be a prime concern to alienate the least amount of people, if any at all.
Now I must admit that I went to High School in the days before computers, and Touch Typing was taught on electric typewriters with BLANK keys (so you couldn't cheat and look at the keyboard). I took Typing for one marking period because my mother thought it would be good for me.
Right! That was the only damn "D" I got in my entire High School career. I was so glad when that was over! The problem is that I am an ill-coordinated klutz, and I just can't get the present-finger-position/brain/new-finger-position circuits to work ... not everyone can do this!
So I happily go along looking at the keyboard, typing with four fingers and an occasional thumb. Took a test once, I can hit 30-35 wpm this way, fine by me. I can't do numeric keypad entry, either, even when I have to do a lot of numbers I use the row at the top.
So if you want to make this a required course, what are you going to do with people like me? Remedial Typing?
Teen Angel - a Ghost Story
Do you really need a school to teach you to type? Do you really need a teacher to sit there and tell you "aaaaa sssss"? Typing is an incredibly basic physical co-ordination skill -- you can learn it all by yourself, you'll never be wrong, and you don't need to be perfect. And obviously, if you're going to learn to type, you're going to grab a copy of The Typing of the Dead. That's all you need.
And, by the way, if you're ever teaching my daughter to type, it had better be on a Dvorak layout.
The point is that if you don't need help to learn it, you shouldn't be learning it in school. That's just a waste of so many things.
I had to learn to type on mechanical typwriters and the skill has served me well. I don't know how anyone could function in a Unix or programming role without touch typing, not without some RSI anyway.
Unless things have changed completely since I tried to learn Touch Typing (mid 1960's) it is not taught in a way that is really useful today. Touch Typing was (and I presume is) taught as a skill to permit one to TRANSCRIBE a document from a hand written original to a typed copy. It is pretty much a developed skill of eye finger coordination and GOOD touch typist does not even need to be able to read or understand what they are transcribing. That is pretty much a dead end skill. On the other hand, being able to COMPOSE on a keyboard without having to "hunt and peck" is a skill that is very useful today. I never was able to learn to TRANSCRIBE, but I have used every type of keyboard including 026 and 029 keypunch machines, Model 33 Teletypes, about a half dozen different dumb terminals and of course the current generation of 101 and 103 key PC keyboards. At one point in the late 1970's I was using at least five different keyboards on a daily basis! I have had bosses that thought I was touch typing for years, before I told them otherwise! Now, learning the key layout and being able to COMPOSE on a keyboard is one thing, but TOUCH TYPING TRANSCRIPTION is something else entirely.
I remember them fondly!
j-u-j-j-u-j-j-u-j....
a-s-d-f-j-k-l-;-a-s-d-f-j-k-l-;
Given how many people write "alot" (and "anytime," and "everyday" to mean daily instead of ordinary), I'd say that the misspelling makes his point particularly effective, even if not intentionally so. Apparently that 99.99% of elementary school is not particularly effective in teaching proper spelling, as grandparent has nicely demonstrated for us.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
I flirted with Mavis Beacon for a bit, but never took it to the next level.
A friend said to that, "Better to have touch typed and lost than to have never touch typed at all."
After I beat him into senselessness, I realized I did just fine with my two finger typing approach.
Besides, aren't the kids these days into the whole thumb based texting thing?
Would you hire a mechanic who used a wrench for a hammer and screwdriver as a chisel?
My using two fingers to type does not break the code/document/email as the mechanic might break the car by misusing his tools. I also hold a pen in a non-standard way, yet I get awarded patents based on what I drew and wrote with that pen.
so it's unlikely to change
It just isn't a national emergency. It's not hurting anything in any way that can be quantified. If a business operation is so efficient and wonderful that they are fretting over the typing metrics of the employees, I'd say things are going quite well. It's just something down in the noise.
I only have full use of one hand (my left). I'm in IT. I have been typing one handed since the dawn of time. Yes it's advanced hunt and peck, but it works. If I am writing off the cuff (e.g. a report, forum post, etc etc), then I've somewhere between 50 and 70 WPM. Transcription tops out at around 50. Took a "business ed" class in 8th grade. Typing was a primary component, but the typing classes were not first up. the teacher saw how fast and effivient i was with one hand, said something to the effects of "I'm not even going to try messing with that," gave me an A for the section and moved me on. I did endure another typing course in 10th grade at tech school (try as I might I couldn't get out of it... passed that part with a B, feh). In the Real World, I routinely smoke most other users 9"you can type faster with one hand than I can with two") The problem: my endurance sucks (arm gets tired) as I have more or less forced myself to use a full QWERTY layout all my life (though an alternate setup may be "better" I have yet to find one that works.
I still can't believe they don't teach even more fundamental and useful mental tools
No kidding, although I was thinking of even MORE practical skills:
"Regardless of the career a child takes up when they leave school, a high percentage of them will use a %A in their daily work, and all of them are likely to %B"
For values of %A and %B:
- Checkbook, use cash (I didn't learn SQUAT about money management in school)
- relationship, have friends and a spouse (I didn't learn anything about interpersonal skills - at least not formally)
- source of nourishment, eat (I didn't learn more than the very basics - and most of that is now considered incorrect - about diet and nutrition)
- (an) exercise routine, be somewhat physically active (I took 'gym', but didn't learn anything about basic weight training, the benefits of aerobics and importance of flexibility)
I lack the imagination to fit this into my pithy example, but something about dealing with children and basic parenting would certainly work in the list, too. Seriously, what's more important - knowing what year Washington crossed the Delaware, or how to not turn into a broke, fat, wife beater with bratty kids?
All the stuff about how to speed read, think critically, debate logically, memorize easily and see through the clouded vale of shoddy statistics one is constantly showered with would be awesome, too. You'd think all that could EASILY be fit into 12 FREAKIN' YEARS of education, but somehow many students barely manage to learn the basics of reading and grammar. I swear primary school has just become a subsidized baby-sitting service.
i learned to touch type on DALnet :D
How about worrying more about teaching spelling, proper punctuation, and grammar! I do NOT think that touch typing should be mandatory, and if it is required at all, students should NOT be graded at all on it. The fact is that many children are exposed to (and used to using) a keyboard before they are even in school at all. If they are not taught to touch type when learning to use the keyboard, it will be much harder for them later.
I was required to take a typing class in college. I was already used to typing with 3-4 fingers and though I did learn touch typing, my speed and accuracy were higher doing it the other way. Plus, now that I am getting older and getting arthritis in both pinky fingers, touch typing is practically impossible for me now. I always had trouble making my pinky fingers find the right keys anyway. Leave it as an elective course, and strongly encourage students to take it.
You made up a rule for other people.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I have one extra thought: I think a typing class should be available as part of a computer-lab rather than a business-typing class. My experience suggests the cultural divide between those two groups is huge.
I know this will just sounds like another story along the lines of "teacher X was an asshole, and teacher Y was a cool guy" but my business-typing teacher was a ruthless disciplinarian who sucked any desire to learn right out of you, and I think this is part of the old-school elite typing culture rather than just her personality. She had paid her dues under harsh teachers before her and now it was her turn to meter out judgment on anyone who disrespected her enough to make a mistake and use correction tape on it.
When I finished that class I was done with touch typing. I could barely get 20wpm if lucky and hated every second of it. Fortuantely I had signed up for a computer lab the next year and the instructor spent the first few weeks having us learn on a typing tutor program. It was a relaxed environment and I got up to 80wpm in no time.
Let us consider that the schools in which you are talking about having this mandate is in our public school system (AKA Socialized School). Of course this mandate will never happen. It should, but it won't. I bet dollars to donunts our private schools already have made this mandate.
I can't help but think that we may be in a similar situation with health care if that becomes socialized.
How would you like having a claim turned down for a preventative gene test early in life that will be a precuror or something that helps your health success many many years from the date of the test.
....er, I believe the keyboard is going bye-bye. not even Dvorak can save it. And besides, what post-literate person will actually type more than a line (dare I say sentence?).
The majority of kids around 12-16 I see these already type at very decent speeds, since they're IM'ing and Facebook'ing all the time. I myself learned typing 110wpm without any touch typing course (except for a small tutorial program I fooled around with on the PC a few times). Touch typing courses are so dated.. I don't think kids need them these days.
Ummmm.. does /. think we'll even still be using keyboards in 10-20 years time ?
My high school *did* require touch typing when I was a freshman in 1995. You were required to take a split typing/geography class in freshman year.
Everything run by the Democrat party fails. Morons.
* cooking ...
* mending clothes
* filing tax returns
* doing business without getting scammed
* keeping your body in shape for non-jocks (some alternative to sports without all the macho shit)
* logic
*
Everybody needs these skills. When they are taught in schools at all, it's mostly on a vocational/extracurricular basis. But we're all supposed to learn chemical formulas that we could easily look up, should we ever need them.
As for touch-typing, why only in high school? That's too late. I learned to write on my Dad's typewriter when I was five. It was much easier than handwriting (let alone the cursed cursive a sadist primary school teacher forced me to learn later). If someone had taught me to touch-type back then, I'm sure I could type as fast as I think or speak now. Of course it can't replace handwriting, because keyboards will never be ubiquitous or include all characters, but arguably it's just as important.
Our library is really cheap and wont replace $10 keyboards until they stop working. So many have keyboards with half of the key labels worn off. Thats when TT is useful!
The last three years that I taught, keyboard courses had been moved to middle school. They came up with a little proficiency and a load of bad habits. Even though touch typing was removed from my freshman Intro to Computers curriculum, I still did a 2-1/2 week refresher course and required kids to do it right. It was all that was needed from a mechanical standpoint. Comparing classes that did the review to classes that didn't, kids were more accurate, finished their work faster, and were less frustrated after review. Even kids who were naturally fast typists (one student came in at 100 wpm) appreciated the tune-up in their skills (same student finished at 125).
However, there's one benefit that a longer review than that would bring: making kids not only typing more quickly, but making them pay attention to the mechanics of writing. Capitalization, punctuation, spelling and so on improve with drill for most (not all) students. Some of the godawful habits of texting are knocked back.
Back in the mid 80s here in Canada it was already an elective, though on actual (old-school) typewriters!
It was really meant as a pseudo getting-ready-for-secretarial-work professional type of course, so I told the teacher that I had no intent on doing any tests or even try to pass the "real" course load which was in French, since I my goal was to master typing in English for later use in Computer programming, etc.
The teacher agreed, gave me full grades, and let me down my own thing.
Thanks to accurate speed reading, I have no problems hitting over 45 wpm whilst watching my fingers do their work.
When they tried to force me to touch type in college, the best I could manage was 15 wpm.
Only when it was pointed out to them, that the requirement for my course did not actually specify "touch" typing was I permitted to return to my method which in turn allowed me to complete my course requirements with a top 10% mark.
So before you go ranting about making something mandatory - have some consideration for those whose results are the same, but whose methods are entirely different.
Touch typing has been obligatory in public schools since at least 1994 in my Northern European country. Of course we also had to demonstrate Microsoft Office skills from word processing to Excel formulas. I remember getting graded on the words per minute scale!
Before you talk about how badly the children today spell because of spell checkers, you might want to check your own writing.
consider that according to a MSNBC Poll, "... 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.", "just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.", and "Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language." I think that touch typing is the least of our worries. what's the point when kids aren't learning how to spell or form a coherent sentence?
No love for Typing Of The Dead?
After we got electric typewriters I could take a class of grade 7 or 8 students and have all of them touch typing faster than they could hunt and peck (or hand write) in about 20 hours. This worked for a few years. Then it stopped working because kids were already very experienced at key whacking their own way when they came to grade one. Many can do 30 words per minute that way, and it takes quite a bit of work to do significantly better touch typing.
Touch-typing is useless as a skill in and of itself; what students actually need is a general Computer Literacy standard. I don't know about anyone else, but I always found touch typing to be a painful and completely arbitrary way to type. After years of use I developed my own method for typing quickly, which doesn't restrict me to keeping half of my fingers on the same handful of keys and stretching my other fingers uncomfortable distances, and I was by far the fastest typist in my high school class.
Michigan used to have a required typing class that most kids took in 8th grade or so. It was some attempt to ensure everybody had at least one marketable skill.
But somewhere in the last 20 years it disappeared. Although "typing" on a typewriter is long gone, it's now used more than ever for computers.
Why get rid of it when it's far more useful than it ever was back then?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
> People are very quick to say "TEACHERS ARE OUT OF DATE!", but that's not necessarily
> a bad thing. The material being taught hasn't changed because IT STILL WORKS LIKE IT
> DID BACK THEN!
I used to think that technology could help education. I've probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I've had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent.
Unfortunately, technology isn't it. You're not going to solve the problems by putting all knowledge onto CD-ROMs. We can put a Web site in every school - none of this is bad. It's bad only if it lulls us into thinking we're doing something to solve the problem with education.
Lincoln did not have a Web site at the log cabin where his parents home-schooled him, and he turned out pretty interesting. Historical precedent shows that we can turn out amazing human beings without technology. Precedent also shows that we can turn out very uninteresting human beings with technology.
It's not as simple as you think when you're in your 20s - that technology's going to change the world. In some ways it will, in some ways it won't.
Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing
Interview by Gary Wolf, Wired Magazine, February 1996.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs.html?pg=3
no no no no no - force engraining of crappy keyboard layouts like qwerty is wrong.
this should never be allowed, unless they give the option of choosing dvorak or qwerty
as the student's choice.
2cents
j
I had to take "touch" typing (is there really any other kind?) in elementary school 20 years ago...on Apple IIs! I just assumed that all schools had followed suit by now! I can't believe there are still schools out there that don't require this! I remember my teacher holding a piece of paper over my fingers so I couldn't see while I was being tested... It's shameful to think that any student could graduate in this day and age without knowing how to type! It's also ridiculous that there is even a distinction between "touch" typing and...what, non-touch typing? If you can't type without looking, then you CAN'T TYPE. Simple!
If it was up to me all schools would teach basic things like touch typing, but I'm still baffled why they don't teach basic personal finance. While we're on the subject, how about what could turn out to be irrefutably the most important thing you can ever learn: first aid.
Um. keyboard layouts are not entirely done in software. There's a big hardware component sitting right in front of you right now. That's right. YOUR KEYBOARD.
and guess what, the instant any child sits down at any computer, he/she is exposed to QWERTY! Good Luck trying to circumvent that one.
Cursive, normal joined up handwriting that all adults over about 40+ can do was designed to make writing _faster_.
If you were not taught (a) why to do it, (b) how to do it sorry, like most American "improvements" to education it was to take out a readily assessed skill which enabled parents to tell which teachers could teach effectively as most parents, even if they didn't understand Differemtiable Manifolds, String Theory, or DNA codons _could_ tell if their children could write ligibly.
Here, children still learn the Suetterlin form 'http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm' and can write legibly in "cursive" from about 10 (5th Grade) and BTW will have had 3 years of English, and be expected to be able to make simple conversation.
Unless they are Swiss, when they will speak Hoch Deutsch, Schweizerdeutsch, Franzosisch & Italianisch, at least at a playground level to incommers from French and Tessin/Italy.
God help you if your Netbook fails!
One more comment... To all the people who are criticizing touch-typing and bragging about how they can type 40-60 WPM without it--get a clue! That's really bad! Now, don't get me wrong--I certainly don't think everyone needs to type at 100 WPM for most jobs, but come on... Anything less is simply not outstanding. I believe that there are probably other, better ways to learn to type, but this one does work well for most people. The point is the end result, not the method... Students should be able to type at a decent rate (75 WPM average?), without looking at the keyboard. The method they choose to employ to do this is entirely arbitrary. I don't know how you can possibly transcribe something quickly when you have to look at the keys, and that is an important skill.
I think a much more important comment is that too many kids get to school already having developed poor typing habits that are difficult to overcome. We really need to teach typing at a very early age, in pre-school.
While they're at it, I wish they would teach "subject /verb agreement" a little more. Reading that blurb was... painful.
...then you probably shouldn't be typing. A touch typing class sounds like a gigantic waste of time and money. The students will be bored out of their minds!
Seriously, are we going to start teaching people how to breathe and run properly too? I'd rather learn a programming language or calculus at school and figure out the easy stuff at home by myself.
I learned to type properly out of necessity when I had to write lots of really long reports... the more reports I typed out, the faster and faster I got, until I didn't need to look at the keyboard anymore. I think this is the preferable method, because people who need to type fast will learn how. Those that don't use a computer a lot, won't learn how but probably won't miss it.
I think a more important skill would be really hammering into kids heads how to read and write properly. More and more kids are growing up nowdays in an informal literature atmosphere that primarily involves email, texting, and blogs. Reading formal books or reports is an afterthought that is done while being constantly interrupted by more email, texts and tweets... and as a result, they never really develop the ability to string together a series of articulated, insightful and justified thoughts.
At least, that is my crotchety old man view. And by old I mean 32.
You're pretty good, but in fact when the phone rings I start WACHING the blinky lights on the phone console and compare them to the number of voices talking to guage if someone's on their cell in the other room.
P.S. Daniel Tammet is Da Bird's Chirp.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Been saying this for twenty years, ever since it was required at my high school. Best -- and possibly only useful -- thing I learned in high school, too.
Then again I learned on an Olympia SG-1. These kids have it easy. =)
My
Limekiller
I am a programmer. I use a PC 8 hours a day 5 days a week for my job, and probably another 2 hours / day 7 days per week at home. I have been doing so since say 1995?
And I have never been able to "touch type", nor has it affected me in any way, shape, or form. In fact I can use my hunt-and-peck style (which only uses two fingers and my thumbs) faster than many touch-typists I know, because I am so used to it and use the PC so often.
The idea that kids would be taking this useless course instead of something often cut like music or performing arts, or even english or mathematics, disturbs me.
Dinosaurs - all of you. Typing is dying, T9 is the future. Adapt now. 100 WPM? T9 on a keyboard for 200 plus.
Cursive, normal joined up handwriting that all adults over about 40+ can do was designed to make writing _faster_.
Why exactly is that important? Writing in print is not all that slow. I certainly had no trouble keeping up with lecturers writing in print. Was it legible? It was certainly more legible than the chicken scratch most people call cursive.
like most American "improvements" to education it was to take out a readily assessed skill which enabled parents to tell which teachers could teach effectively as most parents
Can't typing serve the same function? It's an even better metric, IMO, since it's so easily quantifiable.
Here, children still learn the Suetterlin form 'http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Englisch/Sutterlin.htm' and can write legibly in "cursive" from about 10 (5th Grade)
And think of all that they'd be able to learn if they hadn't wasted time practicing cursive.
God help you if your Netbook fails!
If your netbook fails, you write in print, or wait until you get home. What sort of circumstance are you going to be in where neither of those alternatives is feasible?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Schools haven't given up the ancient Industrial Revolution model of management. Keyboarding? There is no reason to teach QWERTY keyboarding any more! Maybe in a century or so the procrustean bureauocracies of schools with catch up with QWERTY. Forget the superior dvorak sysem. All of that modern stuff is just too much for tiny ed school brains.
>
> I just was thinking about the term papers I would have to do in
> university. I was preparing for a science or engineering career
>
Yeah, yeah .... term papers .... but how were the girls left, right and center of you?? :-)
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
By the time you get anything changed we'll not be using keyboards any-longer.
Touch Typing should be mandatory in Middle School. I wish I had taken typing in my Middle School in 1971. They called it Junior High way back then.
-Eric
Teaching kids to type sounds like a good idea but is actually a complete waste of time. Most of the high school kids I know with cell phones can already touch-text amazingly fast. And they learned that on their own.
I can't figure out how a class would 'help' them learn that stuff faster. Giving students cell phones with unlimited texting would probably be cheaper and faster than buying keyboards and training material and having an adult stand over them saying: "Type: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
Touch typing classes aren't mandatory everywhere? I was forced to take some in grades 6, 8 and 9 (I was supposed to take one in grade 7 as well, but I got out of it). They were pretty pointless by the fourth class.
what's that now?
I've been in Education for 10 years now, and for the past 10 years, every school I've worked in, with, or been to has had a typing requirement for as young as 4th grade. Perhaps it isn't "touch typing", but they do have a mandatory words-per-minute test they have to be able to pass. Hey, it's a start!
...that we should teach touch-typing in school. So long is it's Dvorak, not that horribly antiquated, 19th century Qwerty cr*p.
So far as incentive goes, one would think the insurance, industry would be interested in a method that reduces one's daily finger travels from sixteen miles to one. Less RSI, less claims to pay out.
Scotty speaks into the computer mouse, "Hello computer."
Engineer: "Just use the keyboard."
Scotty: "Keyboard?" *sarcastically* "How quaint."
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Macintosh...
Kind of like gym or shop, where you learn how to do things right. Carpel tunnel is a bitch that I've avoided, hope my kids do too. And they'll be able to get their stuff done faster. Just wish it was feasible to introduce them to something better than QWERTY.
Typing should not be 'mandated' by public schools. This is an inefficient from of communication. QWERTY is DESIGNED to be INefficient. With Voice to Text technology, and Text to Voice, AI's getting better all the time, and the use of video-telephony and other multi-media, typing is becoming ever less relevant and will eventually be replaced by some new technology. Typing should still be an elective in High School, but never a substitute for learning long hand writing skills in elementary school.
I'll tell you what everyone needs, ex: current economy. Everyone needs a basic personal finances course in high school and basic microeconomics. They also need basic law principles.
Young people are being asked to borrow tens of thousands of dollars for a job they might see in 4 years after getting a piece of paper. They will also need car, clothing, housing, and may be looking to marry. $$$ They need the basics on how it works so they can set themselves up in a good way and know why they get where they get.
Every job field now (in the US at least) requires tiptoeing around the complex legal system so someone doesn't sue you and put your company out of business. It's a huge burden on small businesses and therefore the job market as well. Young people are more valuable to themselves and their employers if they understand the basics of how the legal system works. It would be good for all of them to understand more law regarding roadways, tickets, and how to handle them. Or the basics of tort so an employee understands that they put a lot of people, families, and jobs at legal risk by cutting corners, and how companies can be liable for stupid things even if they technically didn't do anything wrong. For example, most people know about the McDonald's case where the woman sued over the hot coffee. McDonald's wasn't required to change their coffee, only the sign on the cup. FUCKING STUPID!
The keyboard you seek is the Model M. There's a true cult following for it -- I have 5. And a collection at work for keyboard afficionados.
I think people should come out of school knowing how to type -- high school was late for me, I could touch type since I was in grade school -- but it did teach a few minor technique changes that speed me up even further I think.
That said, the keyboard is important, I wonder how many schools have proper keyboards to learn typing on *I* learned with Selectric typewriters... , they have a wonderful Model M-like keyboard. I could outtype the print head for brief moments but it had at least a 1-line buffer. The next year? Macs. The Macs of the time had poor key feel, undersized keys, the Mac would actually drop characters once I outtyped it too far, and worst of all, the bumps were on the wrong keys (D and K) instead of F and J. Why teach touch typing on a keyboard with non-standard layout and bumps? The newer macs have plasticy keyboards also with undersized keys and bad ergonomics (they did put the bumps on the right keys though, on ones that even have bumps.) I.e., A school using Macs should really spend a few bucks for non-stock keyboards if they are going to try to measure and improve typing speed in any way.
[citation needed]