Watching our daughters type for their virtual learning exercises pains me.
Our daughters need to learn to type, properly. After two or three years of computer use, for some reason I find myself expecting them to know where the keys are. I’ve downloaded typing games and installed ancient apps via emulators to help them learn the keyboard layout.
Typing is a life skill today. I don’t know if it will go away anytime soon. In many ways, we’re still using 1960s and 70s typewriter designs with our computer keyboards.
I’m not sure when I learned “proper” typing skills, but it was sometime before I took a typing class in high school. By then, I was already something of a touch typist thanks to years of computer use. The differences between the computers and the electric typewriters frustrated me, I admit, and I’m somewhat relieved that I do not have to set tabs or mark paper to remember where the bottom margin might be.
Yes, typewriters were an amazing thing. I love them. I love how they feel. My favorite keyboards try to mimic the original IBM Selectric feel. I owned three portable typewriters over the years, two fully manual and one Brother electric. The manual typewriters were prone to problems, as the strikers (type bars or type arms) would jam up when I hit anything close to a decent speed. The left-hand carriage return levers were like driving a stick-shift truck. The electric typewriters were much easier to use, and they still had a pleasing “clicketty-clack” sensation.
Computer keyboards were mushy. The early Apple, Atari, and Commodore computers didn’t feel like an electric typewriter at all. We should just forget the horrible membrane keyboard Atari and Sinclair used in their cheapest models. (Atari argued the membranes were great for classrooms.)
Along came the IBM PC XT/AT and their wonderful keyboards, the “M” series. That’s what typing should feel like.
My beloved Matias Tactile Pro is failing. Purchased in 2015, it is dying much too early. It’s “Alps” switches still feel great, but the keyboard “ghosts” (extra letters appear) and “drops” too often. Sometimes a keypress double types (bounces or chatters), other times no letter is recognized at all. It saddened me to pack away this wonderful (and expensive) keyboard. At $140, I do not plan to order a replacement.
Typing is a tactile experience. I wonder how iPads and other tablets have affected students.
My fingers are guided by the edges of the keys as I type and the raised dots on “F” and “J” keys. The audible clicks let me know something is happening, too. I’m not sure why that matters to me, but the click is part of the typing experience.
As an aside, I actually like the Apple Smart Keyboard Folio case that I received with my new iPad Air. It types as well as my MacBook Pro, letting me hit a rather surprising speed. Yet, I would rather not type for any length of time on either the MacBook Pro or the iPad’s Smart Keyboard. The keys are quiet (ideal for public spaces), with minimal travel and tactile feedback. The MacBook Pro has a ghosting and dropping problem, well-documented and hopefully resolved with Apple’s return to classic scissor switches.
Clearly, I take typing seriously. I earn money typing. Technically, I earn money composing texts and programming, both of which require typing.
Everyone types. We type constantly throughout the day. Some of the typing is on simulated keyboards on touchscreens and some of the typing is on physical keyboards. Regardless, we learn the classic Qwerty layout and expect certain things when we type.
Children need to learn typing skills, much like they needed to learn how fountain pens worked in the mid-twentieth century. Keyboard skills have become as essential as, if not more essential than, the skill of writing in cursive.
Quills and dip pins were common from at least the year 400 CE through the eighteenth century. Speedball “dip” pens, a specific brand of dip and nib pen, were introduced in the United States just before World War I began. I still own several Speedball kits, dating back to before the company name changed from Hunt Manufacturing to Speedball, Inc. The company is 122 years old, and I’m not sure the nibs have changed much. Speedball lettering is honored by several digital typefaces named for the nibs and the lettering models included in some kits.
I was never good with the Speedball kit. I kept trying, but I never mastered even the basic lettering styles, much less the fine calligraphy I wanted to learn.
Our oldest daughter will someday learn to use the Speedball kits. I’m sure of it. She might learn to use the nibs before she masters typing. She might even learn to use a fountain pen before she types well.
As much as I love a good keyboard, I love a good fountain pen. I’m not sure why I haven’t used one in ages. For a long time, I carried two with me and used them while writing comments on student papers. With everything submitted online in my courses, I seldom have a reason (or excuse) to write on paper.
Fountain pens are glorious writing instruments. I adore them. Parker and Waterman refined their fountain pen designs at the turn of the twentieth century. From the 1920s into the 1950s, the fountain pen ruled. Today, fountain pens remain popular in Europe and I’ve noticed many of my colleagues in academia prefer fountain pens to other writing instruments. One of my favorite high school teachers used a Parker fountain pen. I wanted one just like his.
The ballpoint pen was developed after World War II. We’ve been favoring pens ever since.
I own books on the history of writing, typewriters, mechanical printing, and the evolution of digital typesetting. As our writing technologies evolved from clay tablets to laser printers, the skills we needed also changed.
We will keep searching for ways to teach the girls to type properly. It’s called “keyboarding” now, but it is typing.