The Register from Santa Ana, California • Page 19

Experiments with 14,000 school children show that first-graders take to the typewriter as a duck takes to water, and that they become better pupils for it I i is a far cry from ihe squeak of chalk on gray-black slates a little red schoolhouse, to the click of typewriters in the educa tional structures today. Once upon a time a 6-yeir-old child walked down the dusty road with his books under his arm. They held the that he hoped he would find. But today he walks into the classroom, removes his portable and types away as blithely as his secretary or his sister who has a diploma from a business college. For going to school resembles going to an office.

Or a movie. Or a musical. In fact, education is fun and there are going to be considerably more letters written on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day when the primary grades grow up. "The new modern schools are going to have a great many more mechanical conveniences than the old Dr. Ben D.

Wood, head of the Educational Research Department of Columbia I niversity. asserts. will make instruction more indi viduaiized. for the teacher will have to give more time to each child. They stay together but will develop according to then abilities.

Typewriting will require inspection. "New drawing equipment is entering fl schoolrooms. Map equipment is coming, too. Children make their own maps, using eleva tions. Nobody can understand a map until he has made one.

The stereopticon and motion picture help teach history. "Then there is the FT has made children want to write 1 themes, poems, publish school papers copy their grocery lists in a legibb fashion. Its entrance into the first grades of publu schools, where youngsters a few years ago sewed pieces of cardboard with bright red and blue floss as their only means ot hand work, is a decided step-up for education Here is the story behind it. The Wood-Freeman study, considered one of the most sensational of modern educa tional experiments, really had its hist advei tising way back in 1875 although the experiment is a 1929-through-193 i venture An advertisement 59 years ago told the pub lie that "there is no device comparable to a typewriter for teaching children to spell and punctuate." In 1878 typewriting was taught in the classroom. The typewriter, though, was large and unwieldy.

It loked more like a sewing machine. In fact, schoolrooms have space enough for typewriters. As helpful as they were in teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, they were discarded. Years passed. The typewriter grew smaller.

Portables came along. Even a child could handle them. Therefore, in 1929 a group of educators decided to experiment with the writing machines, beginning with the primary grades. An experimental study was conducted in more than 50 elementary classrooms in 1 2 cities of the United States. Dr.

Wood and Dr. Frank N. Freeman of the University of Chicago were in charge. Once a youngster learns ha to use the typewriter. he oi she dehgh in writing letieis, stories or what-not in spare time and at the left is a typist who is typing out some thoughts of her oivr at home.

4 PPRECIATION of art. Dr. Wood says. is another accomplishment that use of the typewriter has brought about. When a child neatly types the name of his picture and pastes on the label, he has a better sense of balance.

Once upon a time going to school meant singing a few rather foolish little songs about animals or autumn leaves, then opening a row of books, in prescribed progression. Tlrere were 45 minutes for geography, -0 of which were devoted to learning that a mountain is a lofty elevation of rock, or earth and rock, usually having a small summit area and standing high above the surrounding country, and definitions of a similar nature, after which the youngsters told the teacher all about it. But The child recite his current events entirely from a little slip of paper clipped from the previous journal. Instead, if his school is up to the minute, there is a movietone which shows him what is happening everywhere. Tlie stereopticon reproduces a mountain and i lake and the Empire State Building.

There is a stage for dramatization. But best of all according to 14,000 children is the fact that they do not need tc copy the insvver to a social invitation, both acceptance tnd regrets, the formula that one uses in applying for a job, the proper message to send to somebody with the measles or chickenpox, as they are given in a book. Typing makes them create their own. muscles. Dr.

Wood says, respond slowly to the movement of the pen or pencil. Clutching it easy. Of course the sprawl. A brief note fills a sheet of paper. fven kindergartens arc finding that the.

typewriter gives tiny pupils a new interest in their Work. If you don't believe it. look at the picture helou). work is especially benefited. French and Spanish may sound strange when they are so many hmm queer sounds hanging in the air ot twisted words in a book, but when f.

a child transcribes them in wriMnr EjflPlp that he can read, they clear up. Typing does away with tin old lockstep the educator asserts. hildren ad vance according to their ability not in a group. I heir hands don grow tired on a typewriter, thev see plainly what they are doing WL and they amplify it." The survey, which was com a pitted recently, is based on thi results achieved by 14.000 ele mentary school children. fiflBKj Children who Used to early to clean the blackboards begged to come ahead of time to type.

Schedules had to be worked out so every child would get his full time. No 6-year-old child, oi his older brothers and sisters, to leave the keyboard. Lessons were welcomed joyfully. 1 hey weie another chance to typo. A STENOGRAPHER, who learn to ply the black and white keys until she was 18.

may open her desk with a yawn in the morning, but Mary and Johnnie and Billie and Rachel and Jane came to school early to get more typing done. And that all. They grew so in the habit of writing that when typewriters available in their own homes or in the class room, they practiced penmanship. They had the writing bug. If more novels are written by the next genera tion, the typewriter started it all.

"Penmanship will never disappear," Di. Wood says. "It is indispensable. Walking didn't disappear when automobiles came. Instead it became a pleasure rather than a task The same rule applies to For billets doux if the trend back to curved femininity brings in rhymed tenderness again need personal penmanship.

If a man wants to pass a note to aa usher at a theater because the star has made him go slightly romantic, he can't wait till he gets to his desk to extend his challenge. "English is greatly Lenehted," says Dr. Wood. "Children see what they are writing It is readable. They understand punctuation and paragraphing and sentence structure be cause it is so clearly portrayed before them.

It becomes a game. Typewriting favors both the speed and quality of learning. Because it it fun, children devote more time to it." I when the message is being typed a fingers know the way across the keys. He likes what he has written and since it looks so good to him he expands and he still has part of the page to Sill. "In fact," says Dr.

Wood, he becomes so delighted with what lie is writing that the contents begin to have their influence and he will use a pencil when a typewnter isn't available. He has the urge to write. learning comes naturally. I There is another strong ngument in favor I this progressive educational experiment. I When a comparison was made the children who far -urpassed those who when it came to penmanship.

The answer is simple, tire experts say. "Children who type also do more long- idnd Incidentally, parents who happen to have iypewriters in their own homes found out independently of the teachers researches just how fascinating hitting the keys ot a typewriter can be to a child. Many i youngster who tnade the acquaintance of a typewriter in ins home looked on it at first as a shiny new toy. Then, a little later, he discovered that it was a lot ot fun to type out words on pieces of paper: and many children who Hegan that way continued to practice tci the sheer love of it until they actually became quite proficient at the job. Their parents be told how useful a typewriter can be in the schoolroom.

stenographic ihe children also showed a 7 per cent gain in grades over the longhand group. School newspapers have flourished greatly in the elementary where there are Childien who must make difficult muscles round their and cross their can't have time or patience to do such work But when a story fairly sings its black and white way across the keyboard the sense of journalism develops. rPEACHERS, summarizing the value of the typewriter on school work, say: "No matter what is done, the children want to write about it. I he shy child feels his power and becomes one of the group. There is much more alertness, initiative, and interest confidence in attacking all ectivrties.

The children show great pride in their accom plishments. The children who lacked concentration r.amed it. Those who had the habit of starting a never finishing wanted to see through. The children, to the surprise of the decided almost universally that typewriters and arithmetic went together. When they joined the two, they were more diligent and got the right answers.

Clear images of numbers were asy to handle. Pupils, being able to errors on thei ypewritten sheets, reduced the number of mis akes and took home report cards whose grade vere much more ot a delight to fond Surveys revealed that kindergarten childrer who had access to typewriters made tom times as many attempts to write as their non and paints wtil tu more idle in the schoolroom that is expected to be a general outgrowth of the Wood-Freeman experiment. It is possible to paint a picture on the typewriter, using the shadings of the flack ribbon and the vibrancy of the One thing the youngsters quid(Ly teamed was that it's fun to use a typewriter and this little girl is one of many who use the machine to write out holiday greetings, birthday party invitations, and so on. Municipal buildings in the city here the children live are one ot the lost popular assignments. I hey learn vhether or not the courthouse clock angels blowing trumpets for company, oi lands alone above the square.

1 he clock itself it there is a clock is nicely rounded with the 12 hours and two hands in then places. (Copyright, 193i, by EveryWeek I fact, at an age when their untramec muscles will only make round apple letters children are typing letters that would be a credn to their offices. "When children are typing," Dr Wood ex plains, feel that they have achieved an adult level. Reading, spelling and composition, being simplified, are learned quickly. Linguistic Illustrating typed stories is favorite drawing lesson.

The child, having typed the story knows it well enough to choose the right illus trations. And it seems more like fun than school work..