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And the ten minutes striking up a conversation with that strange kid in homeroom sometimes matters more than every other part of high school combined.

Transcript

[Above a bar graph:]
11th-grade activities:
[The y-axis is labeled:]
Usefulness to career success
[Above the x-axis are two small bars and one huge bar. Below the x-axis, each bar is labeled:]
900 hours of classes
400 hours of homework
One weekend messing with Perl

  • Gork@lemm.ee
    15·
    1 year ago

    My most useful skill from primary and secondary school has actually been a typing class in middle school on what I think was an IBM Selectric typewriter (or clone of it).

    I type every day both on the job and off the job. Granted, I’m a basic QWERTY Bitch® who hasn’t played around with other formats but I type fast enough that my coworkers frequently comment on how fast I type. Ain’t nobody got time to wait for your fingers to catch up with your thought when trying to type input into a computer.

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.de
      4·
      1 year ago

      Did you ever do one of those typing speed tests? I’m curious what kind of words-per-minute speed is fast enough for coworkers to comment on it.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
        6·
        1 year ago

        Did one just now. It isn’t the fastest that I’ve done but I’m also on a different-than-normal keyboard (an ortholinear split mechanical keyboard).

        https://files.catbox.moe/5yru0w.png

        • The_v@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 year ago

          Bah!!! Beginners numbers…

          I’ll have you know I barely passed typing class on one of those IBM ball electric typewriters at 31wpm.

          On the IBM computers with word perfect 5.1 from the 5.25’ floppy. I was much faster… 32wpm.

          Then I got ulnar nerve damage from a terrible bicycle accident in Europe aka… I fell off… and now I average 20wpm.

        • Pringles@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 year ago

          Damn dude, I’m not a slow typer but 91 words per minute is blistering fast. Gave it a go on my laptop keyboard with the benchmark test (2 minutes) and ended at 64WPM with only one typo.

      • Halosheep@lemm.ee
        6·
        1 year ago

        I type around 100-120 wpm (before errors) and often get comments. Realistically I’m a bit a slower because I have to go back and fix some errors.

        • rumschlumpel@feddit.de
          2·
          1 year ago

          Damn, you’re almost twice as fast as me, and I’m not exactly slow, either! Definitely comment-worthy.

        • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          That’s more than double the score I got from my highest score when doing a speed test on my phone, which I know is faster for me than just using a computer keyboard.

  • rumschlumpel@feddit.de
    11·
    1 year ago

    As a non-native speaker, those 11th grade English lessons were pretty good. My school also had programming as an elective (though I didn’t take it, since I didn’t see myself as a math-y/programmer-y person in highschool).

  • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 year ago

    I kind of take issue with the idea that education is simply vocational training. Not that I necessarily think that’s what Randall is trying to say here. But I feel like a lot of discussions about the current state of education in the US (and especially higher education) frame it that way.