Learning is important no matter your age. Even if you are already old, learning new things helps keep your mind active and I would argue that continued learning helps keep you feeling younger. But, what about kids? Are our kids today learning the things they need to learn.
Last week, I was watching an American TV news network. They had a story about some organization who had come out with a list of 10 things our children will never have to worry about. Many of the things on the list I agreed with, they were simply things that technology had allowed us to pass by when it comes to education. But, the number one thing listed as being unimportant for kids to learn these days was something I was in big disagreement with.
Typing
The organization had said that the number one thing that kids no longer need to learn is typing. What? Personally, I would argue that technology has made it even more important for kids to learn how to type. I mean, with computers today, we use keyboards constantly to input data to our PCs. Typing skills are critical today in my mind.
I am a pretty good typist. I took two years of typing in High School, and have been using my typing skills ever since. Today, I am nearing 50 years old and I type more now than I ever have. With my work being computer based, it is critical. I can type about 100 words per minute, which I think is pretty good. Because I can type accurately and fast, I can get my work done pretty quickly. For a person who doesn’t know how to type, but has to hunt for the key he wants to use, well, his working speed can come nowhere near somebody who is an accomplished typist.
Now, there can be a legitimate argument on this, though. Voice recognition technology is coming. Actually it’s already here, but it is not good enough yet to replace typing, in my opinion. Over the past few years I have had some trouble with arthritis in my hands, and have thus tried voice recognition and using a microphone to enter data into my computer as opposed to a keyboard. It works. But, it’s not as good or as fast as a keyboard is for somebody who knows how to type. Maybe in 5 or 10 years we will enter data into our computers with a microphone and the keyboard will be a thing of the past. Or, maybe in 50 years we will still be using keyboards.
For now, though, I think that learning to type is critical for a school kid. Of everything I learned in my years of schooling, typing has been the most valuable in my profession.
What do you think?
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