Re: Is 1st grade too early for keyboarding?

Robert Koreis (bookman@wolfenet.com)
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 10:55:21 EDT

On Mon, 29 Jul 1996, Jackie Musil wrote:
> I've been reading with great interest the many different postings about
> which typing program to use with elementary students. It seems that most
> of the posts also refer to 3rd or 4th grade as the starting point.
>
> The principle at our elementary school (which only has K-3 grades) has
> decided that next year, all but the kindergarten classes will do
> keyboarding for 20 minutes once a week, then a second class during the
> week will focus on word processing for 30 minutes.

My wife wants to know if you'll be training them to be secretaries? ;-)
(She teaches 1st grade and taught special ed.)

My experience is that students do not start keyboarding until 4th grade.
Until then, their hands are too small. We all know about the damage
adults have done to themselves with repetitive motion injuries. What
might happen with these growing hands.

The amount of time is another concern. Those are long periods for the
kids to sit still and do a boring, repetitive task. Hell, I wouldn't want
to do it myself!

There is much time before these students need to learn keyboarding skills.
They still need to develop the intellectual processes necessary for
writing.

Go out and get a copy of End of Education, by Neil Postman. It should be
assigned reading for your principal.

Bob Koreis
Teacher-Librarian
Lake Louise Elementary
Lakewoood WA
bookman@wolfenet.com