Typing Through Time
Click, clack… ding!
In Makery, third graders stepped back in time this week, practicing their typing on typewriters from the 1930s through the 1970s. As they experimented with the machines, they observed how typewriter design evolved over the decades and discovered that, while the technology looked very different from today’s keyboards, the basic act of pressing a key and watching words appear felt surprisingly familiar.
They learned about the satisfying ding! of the bell that signals the end of a line, practiced starting new lines, and figured out how to load and unload paper. But the best discoveries were the ones they made themselves.
Minae noticed that one typewriter had no “1” key. After asking Mr. Santosa, she learned that older typewriters often used the “I” and “1” interchangeably.
Fianna discovered something even more unexpected: a key on a 1940s typewriter that printed a fraction directly onto the page. “We don’t have that on our keyboards today,” she observed. “You can type math faster!”
Then Elle made her own discovery. She noticed a knob on the side of one machine and gave it a turn, only to watch the ink on the page change from black to red.
By the end of the lesson, the class had typed letters to parents and friends and debated the merits of old-fashioned typewriter keys versus modern keyboards. Some preferred the raised keys of the vintage machines; others found modern keyboards easier to use.
They didn't agree on which keyboard was better. But they did agree on one thing: typewriters are very cool.
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