When I was a child back in the 70s, I went to summer school and took typing before I entered the 9th grade. This was great as I could hit 55wpm and I made a nice slice of change for the next few years typing other’s people’s papers.
This was in the 70s and typing was offered in high school, usually kids took it in 10th and 11th grade. I also took shorthand.
Now I got to thinking about with the Internet and all, kids must have to learn to type much earlier, even though it’s probably hunt and peck.
But my question is, when do kids learn to type correctly (as with all fingers) now-a-days?
Is it still in high school? Or do they learn it much earlier?
And as a side question does anyone take shorthand in school? I learned Gregg Shorthand.
They tried to teach me to type correctly. With the software and games and stuff starting in elementary school (maybe even Kindergarten I don’t exactly remember). I never learned to type the "right " way but I have gotten pretty good at typing quickly just by having spent so much time on the computer I learn where things are and do it my own way. Fast enough for me at least.
As far as I know, kids learn about keyboards and their functions at the point of conception; and, given the limited space, practice only texting in the womb.
Whatsit Jr. is learning touch typing, and he starts 3rd grade in the fall. He started typing instruction a little earlier than his classmates due to some fine motor issues (short version: His handwriting is total shit and takes him forever, so in addition to handwriting instruction, they’re teaching him to type so he can actually complete writing assignments) but I think the whole class is going to start learning sometime in their 3rd-grade year. Maybe not until 4th grade; I’m not clear. They start using computers as part of daily classroom activity as early as kindergarten, though.
Computers can start really early. There are computer classes for kids as young as two and it isn’t just one of those super-parenting grabs. My oldest daughter’s preschool offered them for an extra fee. I work in IT and I was skeptical and just decided to try it myself. It took her less than 10 minutes to learn mouse and keyboard basics which is way less than it typically takes for an older person. She wasn’t unusual. Commercial computer learning games are mainstream ages 3 and up and most young children around here can use a computer well enough to do what they want (play games) as well as operate other electronic equipment in the house like cable boxes and surround sound equipment.
If you mean, old-school touch typing, I really don’t know. I work on a keyboard all day and never really learned that myself although I can type pretty quickly. I have never seen a youngish person use textbook typing technique. They don’t usually have to type large blocks of texts so much as switch between the mouse, keyboard. and number pad like you would on a typewriter.
As a librarian I see TONS of kids who are immersed in the digital what have you typing terribly. Like, caps on, capital letter, caps off. Drives me nuts.
At my school, the kids are on computers by kinder, whether they can type or not. We also have word-processing keyboards called Alphasmarts that have a program to teach touch-typing. Each grade level gets an Alphasmarts cart but it’s up to the teachers to use them, so some students come to me typing great and some still peck like chickens.
Alex had computer time in kindergarten. He knew what home row was last year in first grade, but I don’t think they got to far into learning how to touch type. Maybe this year.
I’m a 20-year old male. I had a computer class when I was in the 7th grade and we covered typing. I had another computer class when I was a freshman in high school. I can only type at about 60-64 WPM (an old friend of mine had a mother who scared me with her typing speed) but I think that’s plenty fast. Both of those classes I took were elective, though.
6th grade in the early 90s. Back when Apple still had the stranglehold on the educational market. Computer class spanned a whole year and touch typing took up a quarter of it. I think the remaining 3 quarters were some sort of elementary programming stuff that I just ignored.
Single best skill I got out of the educational system from kindergarten to 8th grade.
My first class was in 5th grade, which would have been 92-93. They had this program with a little cartoon called Qwerty, and put us on computers with the keyboards under a cardboard frame, to stop you from peeking at the keys. That was for typing, but they had us playing Oregon Trail, and some sort of multiplication computer game a couple of years before that, and at the end of every class, we had to set the computer up for the kindergarteners, so that class probably learned typing even earlier than we did.
I used to be able to type around 110 WPM, due to playing Ultima Online and Everquest so much. When something is attacking you, you have to get that message out quick!
But then they made me take Typing in 10th grade (this was in 2000, FWIW) and refused to let me use my fingering pattern and instead had to learn the ‘right’ one. Now I can barely top 95 WPM on a good day. Why this seemed a good idea to the school administration I will never know.
I started having these lessons in 3rd-4th grade (around age 9). We used the Mavis Beacon computer program among others and were tested with a cardboard cover over the keyboard so that we couldn’t visually check our finger position. I’m 19 years old and I was in a private school at the time; I don’t think the programs have changed that much in the past ten years. However I’d already been typing for several years before that and developed my own system. I’ve integrated some of what I was taught into my method but I don’t always use the same finger positions that I was taught. (I definitely use shift to capitalize though, learned that when I was like, 5! Come on, people!)
And my typing speed averages about 75 WPM, 90 when I’m copying something I already wrote in longhand onto a computer. I credit my lifelong computer addiction for this.
I was taught to “type” as a high school freshman because all the papers from then on at the school I went to had to be type written. I say “type” because I never learned to touch type, still use two fingers. I have always believed you should be taught using a blank keyboard then you would be forced to use the touch only system.
