A group of us students from all three disciplines (Theater, Dance, Music) petitioned the Dean to have classes in practical survival subjects, like shopping and cooking on a budget, typing and to-date basic computer skills, tips on job hunting and interviews, etc. His response?

"We are training artists here. If we do that right, you won't need ordinary jobs to support yourselves."

I taught myself to type on a tank of an old electric typewriter borrowed from the secretarial training lab at the community college where I wound up in an office, typing and filing.

I noticed a lot of younger co workers aren't familiar with the keypad. So when they have to type in their employee number and password (which we have to do for every transaction) it can take them longer because they rely on the numbers above the letters.

Then a few of them mentioned they mostly use laptops that don't have number pad.

I think it took two classes before I was truly comfortable touch-typing -- one in high school, the other after (during?) college. Later on I got jobs doing data entry -- and then started to learn programming and my speed really took off, because that's pretty much what you do all day, in between screaming at functions that don't work.

Interestingly, I don't actually spell out the letters as I type -- I think "with my fingers" so that I'm pulling up the muscle twitches ("right forefinger to upper right = t") automatically. I only have to slow down to type words that I don't know by heart.

Oh my, Beverly! I was sure that the boys had basic cooking, typing, and other life skills because I was ill equipped when I moved out. My stay at home mom did everything. We did dishes and maybe pealed potatoes, but I had no clue how to actually cook. I didn't know how to keep a checking account and pay bills. I barely knew how to do laundry. My first husband was 9 years older than me and he always said he trained me, in a totally affectionate way. But he really did. He taught me all the basic taking care of a household life skills. I wasn't going to let the boys go out into the world so ill prepared.

I never had a typing class. I laboriously typed on a manual typewriter in high school when I had to. In college I got access to computers and developed a one handed typing style where I would hold my handwritten ms in my left hand to read and type with my right hand. Worked surprisingly well

Because I worked in grocery BEFORE scanning, I am so good with the number pad. I HATE the laptop because there is no number pad, and I bought myself a keyboard for my Mac that had one. The drawback is that sometimes I misdial phone numbers because it is upside down.

My reference for shorthand is the Perry Mason novels, where Della Street is always taking dictation or notes in shorthand.

Intro to keyboarding was a requirement for all Freshman at my high school. Before that, I was a pretty good two finger typer. We learned on typewriters, and when I got a computer I had to adjust how I typed because I'd get a whole line of the same letter if I applied the same pressure I used with typewriter.

sometimes I misdial phone numbers because it is upside down

Yes, that is a problem! I got pretty good with the number pad when I was a payroll clerk and have to really think to make sure I get numbers right on a phone, especially if I’m entering information for an automated system

A group of us students from all three disciplines (Theater, Dance, Music) petitioned the Dean to have classes in practical survival subjects, like shopping and cooking on a budget, typing and to-date basic computer skills, tips on job hunting and interviews, etc. His response?

"We are training artists here. If we do that right, you won't need ordinary jobs to support yourselves."

This is so funny to me because it was my mom's dream to teach a class on what she called "cocktail party conversation" where you learned cultural literacy so that if your boss, client, or whomever had an interest in opera say, you had some basic information to throw in and not make a fool of yourself.

Because I worked in grocery BEFORE scanning, I am so good with the number pad. I HATE the laptop because there is no number pad, and I bought myself a keyboard for my Mac that had one.

I use the number pad a lot since I have all the ASCII codes memorized for accents and its just so much faster and easier for that as well as anything involving regular numbers. I can't imagine getting a laptop without it.

I don't type that fast anymore since I find I don't need to in order to keep up with my own thoughts (I did when I was I temp in grad school though), but one of the main reasons I chose my present laptop (ThinkPad) was because it had the least flat keys of anything I looked at. Though I might sacrifice that for a screen that's taller (more square), for editing purposes.