Aptitude

Have you ever been busy with an activity when someone asks how you do that?  You are then aware that what you've been mindlessly doing is for someone else a skill or talent that is a challenge or an ability they completely lack.

A short while ago I was busy typing away on my computer and looking at some notes I had next to me as I entered the data.  I was unaware my kids had been watching me until they said "how do you do that?"  I responded  "do what?".  They couldn't figure out how I could just type without looking at my fingers or what was coming up on the screen.  I  then found myself explaining how I had learned to type by not being able to watch my fingers but only looking at my notes or the script on a page.

I then launched into an explanation that was probably far more info than they wanted to know about what sort of machines I had first learned to type on and the history of the varying changes in technology from the dinosaurs that I had first acquired my "skills" with to where we are today. 

Can't believe I learned on this!

The first typewriter I learned on was an old manual machine they had in the summer school course I took the summer before I started Jr High.  I played piano at the time so I had more strength and dexterity in my fingers and took to the activity pretty quickly.  Even on that old tank I was able to type close to 70 words per minute.

I  then moved to my mom's electric Smith-Corona typewriter and actually had to lighten up and slow down because the keys were so sensitive I'd wind up unintentionally repeating letters as I typed.

I then took a course in wordprocessing and later the big move to a home computer. Kevin and I bought an Apple IIGS, which was a huge leap for us at the time yet by todays standards it was junk.

For it's time was such an advancement

It's funny while my kids think this is amazing, I watch them with their total lack of concern or fear of technology in trying new skills on their computers or IPads as they scroll through pages, have such agility in expanding and reducing images to add details to drawings or schematics they are working on. And activities that are a part of their everyday world that were unthinkable in my early years of education as the technology did not exist.  Each generation has their own aptitude for activities and the tools available to them.

It is fun sometimes to take a minute and remember what you do know how to do and the learning process it took to arrive at the skill that is now such second nature.  It also made me appreciate the HUGE changes I enjoy today in technology.  Can only imagine what my kids will experience in their lifetimes.