Either way, teaching to a test - just internal vs. externally imposed ones. Possibly some of your lazy teachers got promoted to positions where they could impose their methods on whole districts for my generation... Although frankly, the public school system idea in the 19th century was designed to make good little obedient citizens of us, so it probably just hasn't changed much ever since. (Hell, it's common for students to take a loyalty oath at the beginning of every day. That's the kind of thing we sneer at when other countries do it.)
My mother also took typing and did very well in it - and her teacher was so disappointed that she wanted to go to college, of all the useless ideas, when with her skills she could get a good job as a secretary right after graduation. Business classes definitely weren't seen as for the college bound at her school either. (And then she went to nursing school and then went back and got her master's degree, and her teacher would probably have a heart attack at how much more money she makes doing that then she would have as a secretary.) She made sure my sister and I did those Mavis Beacon typing programs growing up so we'd at least have that useful skill no matter what else we did or didn't learn :D I hit around 65 words a minute when I'm trying, which is still only 2/3 of what my mom can manage, but I get the same thing about how I can type "fast."
(Hell, it's common for students to take a loyalty oath at the beginning of every day. That's the kind of thing we sneer at when other countries do it.)
Do they still do that in schools? We stopped saying the Pledge in my sophomore year, and by mid-junior year were refusing to stand for the Anthem. But that was circa 1968-70, and it was our way to protest the Vietnam War.
But to this day I refuse to say the Pledge, at least as it's written. I pledge my allegiance to the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, NOT to a piece of cloth. If I feel I'm in a situation where I have to say the pledge, I just quickly say "the Constitution and Bill of Rights", instead of "flag".
My mother also took typing and did very well in it - and her teacher was so disappointed that she wanted to go to college, of all the useless ideas, when with her skills she could get a good job as a secretary right after graduation. Business classes definitely weren't seen as for the college bound at her school either.
I never understood the attitude that it was okay for a college-bound student to learn just enough typing so that they didn't have to "hunt-and-peck", but not learn it well enough that they could whip out termpapers in no time flat -- and perhaps make a little money by typing fellow students' papers.
And I'd like to know just what profession -- ANY profession -- that a college graduate would go onto where being able to type well wouldn't have been advantageous.
I hit around 65 words a minute when I'm trying, which is still only 2/3 of what my mom can manage, but I get the same thing about how I can type "fast."
It amazes me -- I really thought that with the advent of home computers, with their much more sensitive keyboards, that higher typing speeds would become the norm. Try achieving a WPM average of 90 on a MANUAL typewriter (the minimum requirement for an "A" in Typing 1 in my day), or a WPM average of 120+ on an electric typewriter (whose keys were more sensitive than a manual typewriter, but were still pretty clunky compared to today's computer keyboards).
The best I could achieve in Typing 1 on a well-tuned manual was around 50 wpm, which garnered me a C. At the end of Typing 2 (first year on electric typewriters), I was able to do around 75-80, which got me a B. At the end of Typing 3 I was averaging around 90-100 wpm, which got me a C+.
I didn't have to after about 8th grade, and I think sometimes they might have forgotten or not bothered in elementary school - but yes, my classes usually said the Pledge at least sometimes from kindergarten up through sixth grade, in the 1990s. I'm not a fan of swearing loyalty to cloth rather than principles either, and especially am not a fan of how it's used politically (like sticking the "under God" bit in in 1954 to prove we weren't "Godless communists").
I also don't understand why you wouldn't want college students to be expert typists, or at least good ones - maybe it was designed as a big racket to create a market for the non-college students to hire out to type up the term papers? Or to give the male students' young wives something to do?
We did learn typing in school, but only in elementary school; I think after that the teachers just assumed we knew what we were doing, and we didn't have to type in class so it's not like they'd know even if we were still hunting and pecking. I was just lucky (not that I thought so at the time, of course!) that my mother made me practice typing as summer homework. (Nothing like imaginary bugs splatting on your imaginary windshield every time you make a mistake to motivate you. Plus Mavis Beacon would be so disappointed in you.) My mom still had a manual typewriter that I played with sometimes, so I can imagine how much harder that would be.
My mother also took typing and did very well in it - and her teacher was so disappointed that she wanted to go to college, of all the useless ideas, when with her skills she could get a good job as a secretary right after graduation. Business classes definitely weren't seen as for the college bound at her school either. (And then she went to nursing school and then went back and got her master's degree, and her teacher would probably have a heart attack at how much more money she makes doing that then she would have as a secretary.) She made sure my sister and I did those Mavis Beacon typing programs growing up so we'd at least have that useful skill no matter what else we did or didn't learn :D I hit around 65 words a minute when I'm trying, which is still only 2/3 of what my mom can manage, but I get the same thing about how I can type "fast."
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Do they still do that in schools? We stopped saying the Pledge in my sophomore year, and by mid-junior year were refusing to stand for the Anthem. But that was circa 1968-70, and it was our way to protest the Vietnam War.
But to this day I refuse to say the Pledge, at least as it's written. I pledge my allegiance to the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, NOT to a piece of cloth. If I feel I'm in a situation where I have to say the pledge, I just quickly say "the Constitution and Bill of Rights", instead of "flag".
My mother also took typing and did very well in it - and her teacher was so disappointed that she wanted to go to college, of all the useless ideas, when with her skills she could get a good job as a secretary right after graduation. Business classes definitely weren't seen as for the college bound at her school either.
I never understood the attitude that it was okay for a college-bound student to learn just enough typing so that they didn't have to "hunt-and-peck", but not learn it well enough that they could whip out termpapers in no time flat -- and perhaps make a little money by typing fellow students' papers.
And I'd like to know just what profession -- ANY profession -- that a college graduate would go onto where being able to type well wouldn't have been advantageous.
I hit around 65 words a minute when I'm trying, which is still only 2/3 of what my mom can manage, but I get the same thing about how I can type "fast."
It amazes me -- I really thought that with the advent of home computers, with their much more sensitive keyboards, that higher typing speeds would become the norm. Try achieving a WPM average of 90 on a MANUAL typewriter (the minimum requirement for an "A" in Typing 1 in my day), or a WPM average of 120+ on an electric typewriter (whose keys were more sensitive than a manual typewriter, but were still pretty clunky compared to today's computer keyboards).
The best I could achieve in Typing 1 on a well-tuned manual was around 50 wpm, which garnered me a C. At the end of Typing 2 (first year on electric typewriters), I was able to do around 75-80, which got me a B. At the end of Typing 3 I was averaging around 90-100 wpm, which got me a C+.
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I also don't understand why you wouldn't want college students to be expert typists, or at least good ones - maybe it was designed as a big racket to create a market for the non-college students to hire out to type up the term papers? Or to give the male students' young wives something to do?
We did learn typing in school, but only in elementary school; I think after that the teachers just assumed we knew what we were doing, and we didn't have to type in class so it's not like they'd know even if we were still hunting and pecking. I was just lucky (not that I thought so at the time, of course!) that my mother made me practice typing as summer homework. (Nothing like imaginary bugs splatting on your imaginary windshield every time you make a mistake to motivate you. Plus Mavis Beacon would be so disappointed in you.) My mom still had a manual typewriter that I played with sometimes, so I can imagine how much harder that would be.
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