One great thing that I learned in high school....I am using now...I learned to type..

[Stuart G]

It makes posting so much easier. I never look at the keys. well...almost never

[Walleye]

1. I never learn to type though my mom was a typing teacher

My handwriting is terrible too I think it’s some kind of learning disability. So I love voice to text which wasn’t even invented until after I retired. Also you get some funny things written from what you’ve said

[Stuart G]

3. ...What did you say...."VOICE TO TEXT"..what is that??? new term for Stu..who doesn't know terms

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like it would be given the name

[RKP5637]

2. Ha, yep, same here. My dad insisted I take typing in HS, and I wondered WTF, but I did.

And am glad for it.

[iscooterliberally]

4. I took typing in HS too.

I had to use an old mechanical typewriter. It wasn't even electric. The only computers that were out were the Wang and the Tandy if I remember correctly. I know the Commodore 64 had not come out yet.

[Stuart G]

7. Yep, back in the day...that is all there were..in high school that is...

[leftieNanner]

5. Eighth Grade for me!

Mrs. Kelly and it was on those old Royal manual typewriters.

It has been very useful ever since!

I don't really like typing on a computer (laptop or desktop) because the keyboards are flat. Best in the past was the IBM Selectric. But you can't carry one of those on an airplane or to a coffee shop!

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. 5th grade for me (mid 70's)

I learned on an IBM electric the one with the shiny ball of letters and numbers.

Even the public schools in Orinda, CA were pretty fancy

And it's cause my handwriting was crap that they taught me.

[EYESORE 9001]

9. I'm thankful for taking Typing I & II in high school

It was 1970-1971 and I was the only male to take both classes. I reasoned that it would serve me well when interfacing with computers became commonplace. I wasn’t wrong. On edit: The first Typing class used office model manual typewriters. It was like boot camp for the fingers.

[Stuart G]

10. New term...."boot camp for the fingers"...K and R your new term...

[Glorfindel]

11. The typewriter on which I learned to type had blank keys

It did you no good to look at the keys. There was a large chart on the wall instead. I wound up typing 60 words a minute on a Royal manual typewriter. One of the best things I ever did!

[Skittles]

27. I learned to type while listening to morse code

USAF

[Hoyt]

12. Probably most important course I took in HS. I can type faster than I talk/think.

[PJMcK]

13. Yep, me, too

In sophomore year, I took CP Typing, a half year course. CP = College Preparatory. The classroom had 20 mechanical typewriters and 20 electric machines. When I went to college and for several years after, I had a Hermes portable typewriter that my mother used to type my father's Phd thesis. (In college, my professors usually gave me a better grade because I new how to properly present my assignments.)

About 10 or 15 years ago, I tried to give the Hermes to a thrift shop; they didn't want it so it went to the dump. Goodbye, old friend.

I bought my first computer in about 1984 and haven't looked back. Since then, I've had about 20 computers, most of them Macs. The late and great composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim once told me that he thought the word processor was one of the world's greatest inventions. I can't disagree.

[Bobstandard]

15. Who remembers the IBM Selectric?

I swear that had the best keyboard ever made. Nothing I’ve used since has been as good.

[PJMcK]

18. Agreed

At my first job we had Selectrics. I loved the typewriter ball because you could change the font!

[Bobstandard]

14. I learned to type stoned. I'm super fast

My typing class in high school was right after lunch, when a bunch of us would leave campus and smoke pot. In typing class you were supposed to keep your eyes on the material you were typing and your fingers on the keyboard. I was terrible at first, but after a few weeks I started aceing the typing tests we had to take once a week with zero or just one or two mistakes. By the time the semester was over I was pushing 90 words per minute with no mistakes. My instructor was so proud! What she didn’t realize was that, unlike most in the class, I’d get to the end of one of the typing “problems” and have no idea what I’d typed. I later got work as a typesetter.

[LastDemocratInSC]

16. I took typing to fill an empty period in 11th grade.

When I got out of college and started doing software development those typing skills really paid off. I could finish tasks faster than many who had no typing skills mostly because they considered typing as a clerical skill and "beneath them".

[UTUSN]

17. Typing was the #1 advantage in getting hired in my employment history. Fergit degrees and such.

[EndlessWire]

19. Finally, a thread about typing...

The only educational advice my mother ever gave me was "learn to type." I was resentful that she did not seem to care about the directions I was taking, just "typing." It turned out that when she first joined the Army (the youngest WAC ever, at the age of 13, because she had lost her mother and father,) they made her a clerk typist, even though she could not type. This caused her enough stress that her advice was "learn to type."

It took me years to understand this, and when I did, it removed a lot of pain, and made total sense. I have used it constantly all my life. It was the best advice. I was never able to type sufficiently fast to become an "executive secretary," which was the goal for a female in those days. You had to be able to type 90-120 wpm with an error rate of no more than 5; the best I could do was 54. But, I still did it, and Mom was totally right, as usual. RIP, Mom...

[Stuart G]

20. Back in the early 60s when I learned to type in a typewriting class..the room was full of girls..

I think when I took Typing II, second year..I was the only male in the room.

I remember typing term papers without much trouble. Also, while I am typing these words on my computer,
I never, absolutely NEVER LOOK AT THE KEYS TO FIND THE LETTERS

it all comes naturally cause I took typing for 2 semesters in school ...TYPING I AND TYPING 2..

[madamesilverspurs]

21. Noisiest class ever!

And we fully expected our fingers to develop muscles from hammering those keys. That was 7th grade, 1960, summer school.




.

[ret5hd]

24. Posted without comment:

[Skittles]

26. oh yes

I put the Selectric typewriter as my second favorite invention in my lifetime (first was microwave)

[mainer]

22. I learned back in the 60s, when only girls learned to type

The boys never took those classes and they had to have their girlfriends type their papers for them!
Then the computer came into being and suddenly, girls had the advantage.

[highplainsdem]

23. Same here. 80 wpm then. Useful skill with desktops and laptops.

Not so useful with phones and tablets, having to type one-handed and without real, complete keyboards.

[Skittles]

25. OMG Stuart

I work in IT and I cannot tell you how many times I rapid-type a message on Skype then sit and feel my hair growing as I wait for someone to hunt and peck a reply .......... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[DFW]

28. I didn't, but I DID learn to write in English instead of Republicanese

EXCERPTS FROM THE OFFICIAL DICTIONARY OF REPUBLICANESE

In Republicanese, many words that sound alike may be spelled differently at random. A few prominent examples:

In Republicanese, the following words may be spelled at random using any of the three ways given:

A.) Two, Too, To
B.) Their, They're, There
c.) Your, Yore, You're

The Republicanese version of Robin Hood therefore starts with "In days of you're...."

The only rule is that the correct use of them as in English is never permitted twice in a row.

Words with single letters that change meaning when that letter is doubled must never be used in correct English context. The classic example is “lose” vs. “loose.” In Republicanese, if you do not win an election, then you “loose” that election. Conversely, if your (Republicanese: you’re) belt is too tight, you need it more “lose” in order to be comfortable. Another example would be the Republicanese, “I met Donald Trump, and he was rudder than I imagined,” vs. “I grabbed the ruder and was able to steer the boat to shore.”


In English, the contraction for "it is" is written "it's." To show possession referring to something previously mentioned, one writes "its." In Republicanese, it is the other way around. Examples:
English: “It's impractical for a building to have its solar panels in the basement.”
Republicanese: “Its impractical for a building to have it's solar panels in the basement.”


In Republicanese, an apostrophe is used to form a plural, as opposed to English, where it is never correct. But it must be done at random, never systematically. For example, Bill and Hillary are "the Clinton's," but Bill, Chelsea and Hillary are "the Clintons." The other way around is also correct. In Republicanese, either form is correct as long as it is not spelled the same way twice in a row.

[zanana1]

29. One great thing I learned was shorthand.

I used it all through college to take notes. I got to include more facts in my notes than longhand would allow.

[onethatcares]

30. learned to type in the late 60s and

took Shorthand, the Gregg Method if I remember correctly. Those green steno books were great for all lists, etc.

Typing got me a pretty cush job in the army as a morning report clerk. Monday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm. No weekends.

They had no use for shorthand in the army though.

Was one of three guys that took both courses.

[whistler162]

31. I went to school for typing

The Hunting and Peck school of typing!

[3catwoman3]

32. My high school senior year schedule was too full to fit in...

...typing. I wanted to continue to be in the band, and also take advanced biology, which was an extra science class above and beyond the usual physics. No room for typing and no room for driver's ed.

Never took typing and did driver's ed in summer school right after finishing high school in 1969.

Not being able to type well (still a 6 finger hunt-and-peck sort while looking at the keyboard) was definitely a major deficit in college and grad school. In 2013, when my pediatric practice converted to electronic medical records (EMR), I was doomed to spend lots of extra time charting because I could not simultaneously listen to a mom giving her child's medical history while entering it in the computer. I'd scribble the info on a piece of paper, and type it up later, essentially working twice. Most of lunch break spent trying to catch up on the morning's patients and 2-3 hours at home after work, unpaid.

I think my deficit in regard to typing actually worked to the benefit of the parents. One of the big complaints I hear about EMR is that people feel that doctors/NPs/PAs are more focused on the computers than the patients. I used to rationalize that not being able to type allowed me to be able to look parents in the eye while we were discussing their children's health.