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School-Aged Children
Curious - when do they learn typing nowadays?
Geez, that makes me seem old.
But, I realized today that they probably need to learn it in elementary school (as opposed to high school like me). They have computers as a special, but I know they're not learning typing yet (nor do I think they should, since they need to work on handwriting first). I do know that some of the K homework was a picture of a computer keyboard and they'd have to color in their name or whatnot.
Also, does your school still teach cursive? I know some schools are stopping, which I sort of understand. But what will people use as a signature?
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Re: Curious - when do they learn typing nowadays?
I've tutored a variety of kids in Mont. Co. public schools and private schools in the D.C. area, and I've never run into a kid who took "typing/keyboarding" in school. Kids in public school take a mandatory computer technology course (heavily oriented toward Microsoft products!) and they learn all about Word, but not keyboarding as in learning the home keys and testing for w.p.m.
My DD is in 6th and she really needs to learn to touch type. Her humanities classes are demanding longer writing, and she still writes faster than she types. She knows typing would be a big advantage in terms of organizing and editing her writing, but she can't bring herself to sacrifice the time.
They don't teach cursive in the same way we probably learned (and were expected to use it) now. It's introduced in Montgomery County in 3rd grade, but my DD's teacher used it as an optional filler activity. Kids could take a cursive worksheet in their spare time. She occasionally used it as a punishment. Grrr! My DD wasn't particularly good at cursive, so she didn't even learn to make every letter in the alphabet!
I'm not too upset about the lack of cursive, because she'll probably live in a world where keyboarding is far more important, but she can't read cursive writing, which is occasionally a problem!
The summer packet we were given before 3rd grade requested a certain number of typing practice hours. It included some good practice websites and a "typing log" they had to fill in and bring on the first day of school.
I think that's the only specific typing thing we've gotten so far. I know they have computer class every week from preschool on up but I don't know if they go over keyboarding skills or not.
My kids' schools do intro cursive in 3rd but not a lot of time is spent on it.
We don't teach typing formally, which I think is a shame. Yeah, it takes time, and is a skill that could easily be learned at home... but we already know many of our families can't even do what it takes to help their kids learn how to read or their basic math facts at home, so why would teaching them to type happen, KWIM? I think it's just one more thing that winds up putting a huge gap between the kids who have someone to work with them at home, and those who don't.
We teach cursive in second grade (and not to mastery- I make sure my kids leave me knowing how to use a cursive signature at the very least, which they're usually more than excited to do), but not after that.
My daughter's elementary school has had computer class from 1st grade. Even then, they were taught proper hand placement. Formal keyboarding is taught in 4th grade.
Her school also offers "Computer Club" after school, twic a week, in the spring. They learn a variety of skills. My daughter thought it was fun to select photos and images to make cards and posters, They learned how to import, combine, and create information from multiple sources.
Newlyweds since 2007