Meanwhile, in Spanish class… welcome to high school in the year of the Coronavirus

This past Monday, my sister sent this photo of my 15 year old niece with the caption “Sophia in Spanish class”.  Welcome to school during the pandemic.  I felt sorry for Soph, but happy for her too—how would she complete the school year without a computer and the internet?   Anyway, hang in there Sophia… I’m proud of you honey.

(By the way, notice those long legs?  I told you this kid was tall!)

Anyway, it got me to thinking about something my friend & old classmate Pen said to me recently:  we were talking about our school days, and she said “I wish our school had offered sign language in place of (or besides) Spanish.  I think it would’ve proved more useful.”

I can’t remember if I responded to that, but yes I very much agree.  Then it got me to thinking… what useful things DID I learn in high school?  In kindergarten I learned how to print my name, in first & second grade to read & write.  Third thru sixth, basic math skills & spelling.  

But junior high and high school?  Hmm… a couple years of algebra and a year of geometry which now pretty much escape me.  Three years of Spanish I can recuerda un poco (remember a little).  The first 6 or 7 lines of Hamlet’s Soliloquy. 

What else?  OH WAIT, I KNOW.  

My senior year, I took a couple business courses, including a typing class.  I remember the teacher walking up & down the rows saying “Speed & accuracy, speed & accuracy… both will be expected of a good secretary.”  I had ZERO intentions of ever becoming a secretary (I know it sounds sexist now, but 41 years ago that was still considered women’s work).  But I still enjoyed the class immensely.

It was also proving to be very useful.  I had begun doing some short story writing my senior year, which my former English teacher Mrs. Fox would read & give her opinions on.  I liked giving her typewritten pages, courtesy of that typing class & Miss Legal (our school’s librarian) who let me use her electric typewriter in her office.

Christmas day, 1978.  Looking at my ‘big Christmas present’, an electric typewriter!  (I was really surprised, these things were expensive.)  Meanwhile, Dad tells ‘Mither’ they did right

It just occurred to me, I don’t suppose they teach typing in high school anymore… most kids are probably adept at using a computer keyboard fairly early on.

Well, young people sure weren’t when I took my first computer class in college. 

Of course computers weren’t anything like today, they were just ‘dummy green monitors’ and big, klunky keyboards.  Our instructor informed us that before tackling operating systems or programming, we’d be learning how to use WordStar, a word processing tool to create a document.  He instructed us to begin typing a page of sample text from our workbooks.

As most of the other students began hunting & pecking the keys, I began CLACKETY CLACKING away like there was no tomorrow.  (My old typing skills were once around 65 words per minute.)  I didn’t realize the racket I was making in that quiet lab until our instructor came up beside my chair and said “Douglas.”  

When I stopped and looked up, he said “This class is for beginners, have you worked on a computer before?”  I said no sir.  He said “You put me in mind of the college student in that Disney movie, ‘The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes’.  Okay, carry on!”

Was I the only student in ihat class who had taken typing in high school or owned an electric typewriter?  C’mon!  I should’ve just told him the truth, but I let him go right on thinking what he did!