As I'm sitting here, tapping on my IPad, I'm pondering how many hours I spent, learning the keyboard in my typing classes back in the 70's? Too many to count, I bet! And does it even matter now?
I struggled with typing but it wasn't because I didn't have good teachers. It was one of those classes we took to prepare for the working world back then and I underestimated how difficult it was going to be -without lots of practice.
One of the good nuns -Sister Sara Francis - who taught us, was so serious about her subject. We'd sit there, backs straight, our wrists arched a certain way and she'd repeat "a" "a" "a". We were to strike that letter without looking at the keyboard. "I've got this". We'd go thru the alphabet, as the weeks went on. Then we started with sentences. "A little peek at the keys won't hurt"... Then paragraphs! "Are you kidding me?" That's when the temptation to look at the keys completely took over. From that day on, I was so screwed!
Our tests consisted of typing from our textbook, as quickly as we could, with no errors....no easy task when you're looking at the book AND the keyboard! Numerous times, Sister would catch me, eyeing the keys, and would correct me. I'd listen to her briefly and what SHOULD have read "The young girl went to the store to buy bread and eggs" came out "rhr youbf gurk webt to (I always got "to" right) rhw drotr to (there's "to" again!) nur bresd amd effs". Then I'd go back to looking at the keys and the book. About 20 words a minute. WOW! What a speedster!
I guess it's pretty sad when you can't even get a secretarial job at a company at which your Dad's a vice-president. But no worries. There was a demand for file clerks elsewhere. And if you wait 40 some years, "typing" as we knew it, would become obsolete and tapping your finger on a screen would be just good enough.
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