[...] Meanwhile, my parents had sent me off to do a 2- or 3-week touch typing course. This was during summer holidays, and I wasn't enthusiastic, but here I actually did learn to do something fairly well with my fingers, and I was grateful for this good idea in later years.
When I got to university and had to take a lot of notes, cursive
handwriting just couldn't keep up, so I switched to rapid printing
(detached letters), which is what I still do when I have to write
anything by hand. Cursive survives only in my signature, which is now
sort of recognizable, but completely illegible.
Ar an tríú lá is fiche de mí Eanair, scríobh Ross Clark:
> [...] Meanwhile, my parents had sent me off to do a 2- or 3-week touch
> typing course. This was during summer holidays, and I wasn't enthusiastic,
> but here I actually did learn to do something fairly well with my fingers,
> and I was grateful for this good idea in later years.
I think every secondary school should have a typing course, it is a fundamental
skill of almost every professional job these days. (Earlier makes less sense since the fingers are not yet adult size.)
Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Ar an tríú lá is fiche de mí Eanair, scríobh Ross Clark:
> [...] Meanwhile, my parents had sent me off to do a 2- or 3-week touch
> typing course. This was during summer holidays, and I wasn't enthusiastic,
> but here I actually did learn to do something fairly well with my fingers,
> and I was grateful for this good idea in later years.
I think every secondary school should have a typing course, it is a fundamental skill of almost every professional job these days. (Earlier makes less sense since the fingers are not yet adult size.)
In the U.S. at least, that might be semi moot as computers
and such are fairly common in households at early ages (not
sure about elsewhere). Might depend on what level of
proficiency one is thinking of ;)
On 2024-01-22, Ross Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
When I got to university and had to take a lot of notes, cursive
handwriting just couldn't keep up, so I switched to rapid printing
(detached letters), which is what I still do when I have to write
anything by hand. Cursive survives only in my signature, which is now
sort of recognizable, but completely illegible.
High school for me, but otherwise the same.
The cursive handwriting taught in elementary school is apparently
called "Ausgangsschrift" (starting script) in pedagogical German,
and the idea seems to be that this will eventually develop into an individually convenient form. That never happened for me. I was
too diligent and painstakingly kept painting the cumbersome forms
with all their connections and little curlicues.
Ar an tríú lá is fiche de mí Eanair, scríobh Tilde:
> Aidan Kehoe wrote:
> > Ar an tríú lá is fiche de mí Eanair, scríobh Ross Clark:
> > > [...] Meanwhile, my parents had sent me off to do a 2- or 3-week touch
> > > typing course. This was during summer holidays, and I wasn't enthusiastic,
> > > but here I actually did learn to do something fairly well with my fingers,
> > > and I was grateful for this good idea in later years.
> >
> > I think every secondary school should have a typing course, it is a
> > fundamental skill of almost every professional job these days. (Earlier
> > makes less sense since the fingers are not yet adult size.)
>
> In the U.S. at least, that might be semi moot as computers
> and such are fairly common in households at early ages (not
> sure about elsewhere). Might depend on what level of
> proficiency one is thinking of ;)
My experience (in Western Europe) was the generation whose late teens were just
before the advent of the smartphone had excellent typing skills, and those who
spent their teen years on smartphones didn’t. Is that different in the US? Are
the majority of teenagers routinely using desktop computers or laptops recreationally there, or is it smartphones?
On 2024-01-22, Ross Clark <[email protected]> wrote:
When I got to university and had to take a lot of notes, cursive
handwriting just couldn't keep up, so I switched to rapid printing
(detached letters), which is what I still do when I have to write
anything by hand. Cursive survives only in my signature, which is now
sort of recognizable, but completely illegible.
High school for me, but otherwise the same.
The cursive handwriting taught in elementary school is apparently
called "Ausgangsschrift" (starting script) in pedagogical German,
and the idea seems to be that this will eventually develop into an individually convenient form. That never happened for me. I was
too diligent and painstakingly kept painting the cumbersome forms
with all their connections and little curlicues. Until I finally
had enough and to the horror of my parents (and complete disinterest
of my teachers) made a hard switch to printing and never looked
back. Later at university people complemented me for my legible
handwriting.
I didn't really have a signature either and, as I had to sign papers
as an adult, sort of purposefully developed one. When my most
recent tenant (a schoolteacher, in fact) signed her rental agreement
and associated paperwork, I noticed that she also has the problem
that she doesn't really have a signature and writes her name too
neatly.
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