that there was a typewriter in most houses, but just because that typewriter
was there didn't mean that every kid knew how to type properly, with the
correct fingers, and knew all the special tricks of the machine.
A lot of kids back in 1970 were pretty decent two-finger typists, but who,
again, didn't know what all the special buttons on the machine were for, or
how they could make their lives easier.
I was also a pretty good two-finger typist, and had been typing all of my
papers since 4th grade, but being made to take an actual typing class when I
was a sophomore was the best thing anyone could've done for me. I learned
the right fingers, and that made me faster. I learned what Tab Set, Mar Rel,
and all those other buttons I had been ignoring for years, were all about;
and they made getting those papers written for Mr Rosenberg a piece of cake.
My friends who didn't take the "boring" typing course struggled with things
that were a snap for me. Also, taking the typing course taught me a lot
about the proper *formatting* of a document; something I'm still fussy about
to this day.
Can we assume that just because everyone has a computer in their house and
can navigate around FB, YouTube, and Google, that they type well enough to
help them out in the long run? I don't think so. You can't assume this any
more now than you could have assumed 40 years ago that every kid knew how to
type because there was a typewriter at home.
And what about those smaller virtual keyboards (or finger keyboards even)?
Do we assume that learning keyboarding is useless because *some* keyboards
are a little smaller? I don't think so. Yeah, it takes a little adjustment
for me to get used to a slightly smaller keyboard (and the key word here is
*slightly*), but the skills I learned 40 years ago still carry me through
quite well on those machines. Finger keyboards? My ten-figer skills are
still helpful when I'm trying to thumb-type on a QWERY phone.
Another reason why proper typing is so important is that if you can type
fast enough, it's a whole lot easier to do a total brain dump without losing
your train of thought. If you're still looking around for where the keys
are, you're likely to forget what it was you were going to write in the
first place.
And it doesn't have to be all that boring or all that intense. I suddenly
fell ill a few weeks ago and had to come up with a plan that anyone could
teach. So I gave my 6th graders, many of whom had abysmal typing skills, my
2nd grade typing book to work on. We should be done with it in about two
weeks, and they're racing each other to see who finishes first.
The lessons don't have to be boring either. Once we got enough keys under
our belt, I was able to make sentences that they found amusing (and that
also raised a few parental eyebrows). The short essays I've had them work on
at the end of each book have tended to be about something of cultural or
personal interest.
And that's the other important thing: I look at the time I spent teaching
them how to type as a way to get other "life lessons" taught at the same
time. They think they're learning how to type, but they're really learning
other things that I think are important for a whole human being to know.
So...do we need to keep teaching keyboarding? My answer is an unqualified
YES.
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