Learning to Type
“Run, for, go to, print, Miss Bar-bar-a Dy-les-ki. Run, for, go to, print, Miss Bar-bar-a Dy-les-ki.” These were the words I practiced over and over again in 1991 sitting in front of a monitor with a blinking green rectangle waiting for my next letter. I locked my eyes on the screen and did not allow myself to look down in search of the tricky letter k. I imagine now the neural pathways forming, not too perfectly, to connect the letters I intended to find with the correct position on the keyboard. Eventually those typing commands were strung together into simple programs on the computer, always following the script given to me by Miss Dyleski. However, those programming memories are vague when compared to the word for word clarity of the endless hours spent trying to become a proficient typist.
Typing skills are useful. But spending hours in a gifted education class learning to type does not reflect the higher order thinking skills students should be developing. As I reflect on my time in Miss Dyleski's class, I'm reminded that skills students can practice on their own or learn by doing more meaningful work should not be the focus of instructional time.