Just like the picture above, we each had an electric typewriter on our desk.  The teacher used to teach us which fingers to use on which characters.  We would start off with the ASDF keys as that’s where your fingers were supposed to start.  We would start out slow with getting used to just the A and S keys.  After a few times trying, Mrs. Takamori would put on a record that had a slow tempo and we would follow along as we hit the A and S keys.

To this day, I still remember the tune.  And right at the end of the tune, the guy on the record would say “And, Stop”.  Of course we didn’t have homework for that class as not everyone owned a typewriter at home.  And it was only for one quarter of the 8th grade school year.  But I must admit that learning the basics of typing – like where to rest your fingers and which fingers to use for which keys – did help when I started working with keypunch machines.  Then later when I started working with computer terminals.  And even to this day while I type out this blog.

Do you remember taking Typing class?  Did it help you later in life when computers became an everyday part of life?  Or do you type with just one or two fingers?  I used to work with another Programmer who typed with just 4 fingers total.  Drove me nuts!  What grade did you take typing?  Bonus points if you can remember the teacher’s name.