My 12yo daughter is following a typing course at school, learning to touch type. Students were able to use their own keebs during this course. Being a good parent, I suggested she was using my ‘old’ Leopold FC660C with Topre switches. Good tooling are half the work I’d say. But I only let her use this at home.

This week, I got a letter from the teacher. She was underperforming. Made too many mistakes. Almost 60% wrong hits.

So, I did some test exams from the same course with her today, at home, and she finished all of them instantly with little to no mistakes, doubling the keystrokes per minute threshold.

I asked her how is was possible that she was so underperforming at school.

Her response: “Dad, those keyboards are really really bad. Everything is so flat, I don’t feel what I’m doing. The one at home is so much better”.

I think I spoiled her…. 😬

  • solracarevir@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Build her a cheap custom keyboard with blanks and make her flex in front of the whole class.

  • cyanophage@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I wonder what would happen in a typing course if you showed up with your own keyboard and it was a split ergo with thumb keys and a non-qwerty layout. Would they let you use it? Or is the typing course specifically a “qwerty” typing course?

  • 007Durgod@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I would be more concerned that she can’t adapt to a not so great keyboard.

    It is like somebody that can pass a driving test in top of the line Audi but cannot pass in a Toyota Corolla.

  • kvolution@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    This made me laugh; my 12yo is a hunt-and-pecker and it drives me NUTS (I’m a writer and editor by trade) but she only ever typed on a laptop and then insisted on having the worlds most laptop-like keyboard at home. Of course she can’t type anything, it’s all flat and she can’t tell where her fingers are!

    Her big sister is getting a Keychron with custom keycaps as a 16th birthday present (her request) and I’m thinking the 12yo can get something for Christmas…

  • BaneAmesta@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Damn, when I had a typing course the best we had were some ancient computers with DOS 💀

    • MonkeyDog453@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      We had brother typewriters in my school’s typing class.

      It wasn’t like computers didnt exist then either, this was around windows 98 time period.

    • penatbater@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      When I was in elementary (a few decades by now) we also had computer classes. One of the things we were taught was typing, even had a batch wide competition.

    • sputwiler@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      they were required in Massachusetts, as well as office suite proficiency. However, judging by how nobody I’ve met in my professional life knows how to use a word processor, everyone ignored them.

      • _H1br0_@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        in my country people that work every day with a computer can’t even open Google, and they get paid really well…

  • BluepineYT@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Nah you didn’t spoil her. Typing on a crappy school board is a world of difference from typing on a proper mechanical board. I suggest you to buy her something like a rk68 with red switches.

  • Electronic-Race-2099@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    You’ll have to deal with cheap keyboards throughout your life. She should learn to type on the right keyboard for the class.