by Rick Blechta
This week’s post is in answer to Aline’s post yesterday. I, too, once suffered from a lack of typing skills, but fortunately for me, a new piece of computer software had just been released and was being used in the schools in which I taught. That program was Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
But first, a digression…
Like Aline, I’d become an Advanced Hunt and Pecker on the typewriter. I could type pretty darn fast. My high school graduation present from my mother was a portable Olivetti. Funny thing was, my mom never suggested that I take a typing course (I used her typewriter all through high school).
In those days, “college-bound” students didn’t take “lowly” courses like typing. Why this was the case I have no idea. Did the educators think that we’d hand-write term papers and then pay someone to type them for us? Because when I got to university the professors made it pretty clear they didn’t want handwritten submissions.
So in the late ’80s when Mavis Beacon was released — the same time as the rise of the computer — it had finally been realized that all students should learn how to touch type. For me, it was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Listening to my students, I was hearing that they really liked learning how to touch type.
So in 1989 I plopped down $29.95 and bought this program. Never have I spent money more wisely.
Knowing what I did about learning from my musical studies, I realized the clearest way to success was to spend time every day using my new program. As in learning to play an instrument, you can’t expect good results if you only sit down and practise for an hour every four days. Fifteen minutes a day will work far better in the long run whether it’s learning to play a Mozart minuet or learning to touch type.
I made it my business to do my keyboarding practice between the time I got home and dinner. If I hadn’t gotten to it in time, I’d feed our two sons and do it while they ate. My goal was a minimum 10 minutes every day with 15 as my goal. Surely I could find that amount of time in every day.
Surprise, surprise, in a month I could touch type pretty well, maybe 40 words a minute which was more than sufficient for my burgeoning writing career. The Mavis Beacon program is geared towards kids (games and such as a learning tool) but I found it relatively fun and practising never seemed onerous.
I am thankful I took the plunge every time I sit down at the computer to work. So Aline, and anyone else out there who only hunts and pecks, take a few minutes out of your day for one month and you will be a much happier writer. I guarantee it.
Mavis* is my hero!
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*While there are other software programs that will successfully teach you to touch type, I have a “relationship” with this program, so I’m recommending it.
And here’s an interesting factoid I just discovered courtesy of Wikipedia: “Mavis Beacon’s first name was taken from Mavis Staples, lead vocalist for the Staple Singers. The surname derives from beacon, as in a light to guide the way.”
No wonder I was drawn to this program. I love the way Mavis Staples sings!
7 comments:
Great story Rick.
Now, here's mine (the short version). Like you, in high school I was streamed into the "smart" class. Well, I don't remember what they really called it, but that's what the kids called it. We rebelled when we were not allowed (!!!) to take typing. The principal explained that it was because "you will all have people to type for you" (in other words the kids in the "dumb" classes). Our pressure resulted in the typing teacher volunteering to run a class for us at 8:15 AM. The first few classes were a "sell-out" crowd -- but teenagers and 8:15 am aren't a good mix and gradually the class dwindled to about 6 of us. And at that point the teacher said she wasn't willing to do it for such a tiny number of people. Still, it was enough to get me started. And one of the best skills I've ever picked up. And boy, was that principal wrong -- hardly anyone has someone to "type for them" any more.
I'm on here as anonymous -- but it is Helen Nelson
I was basically told the same thing by the guidance teacher in my high school -- without being quite so bald about it. What were they thinking? Your principal's statement is absolutely laughable.
Now they no longer teach cursive writing (another soapbox I could climb onto) but at least every student is taught how to touch type. So I supposed some progress is being made.
Thanks for commenting, Helen!
Interesting. I have fond memories of learning to type. We had lots of typing classes in my high school and I took several. I was college bound and thought it would be a useful skill to learn. Plus, I find typing very soothing. I admit, though, that I never, ever went to a guidance counselor in high school so I pretty much made up my own curriculum of things I thought would be useful to get into college. And didn't have anyone telling me I should or shouldn't take something.
I'm astonished by the people who were discouraged from typing class because they were college bound. My high school principal MADE me (and all the other college-bound kids) take typing because we would need it for our papers. How right he was.
I learned to type so long ago that electric typewriters hadn't been invented yet. My first typewriter looked like something out of a 1940s movie in which the chain-smoking, fedora-wearing reporter pounded out his scoops with two fingers.
Did you have a steam-driven typewriter, Donis? ;)
Why, yes! How did you know?
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