Shorthand!

[MarieIG]

My mother was an executive secretary, and used shorthand. (She "retired" when I was born, but still used it to make herself notes when she was older.) I took a "speedwriting" course somewhere along the way. It was ok (not a precise as shorthand) and I used some of it for note taking in college/ grad school.

 

[Walt34]

She also had me take typing...back in 1969 she said "some day people are going to talk to these big computers on a typewriter...you should know how to do that."

I still think that one of the two most useful and practical classes I took in high school was typing. (The other was one in what could be called "financial literacy".) If nothing else it saved me a bundle from having to pay people to type my term papers (and yes, that was a thing back then).

Of course now I'd starve, because my smartphone skills are negligible.

 

[Amethyst]

Philosophically speaking, perhaps you are right. The other lesson I took from this is that...well, I'm not sure there is a lesson. But the reason I can't read back my old notes is probably related to having been such a speedy transcriber way back when.

Gregg is a phonetic script, which assigns a symbol to each English sound. While this is somewhat faster than writing out each word, it's cumbersome on the page.
To increase speed, one learns shorthand notation for the shorthand - i.e. common words and phrases are reduced to a single flourish, dot, etc., whose single assigned sound can "suggest" the word or phrase. Lacking the context of 40+ years ago, I have nothing to work from.

Probably a good thing. Sometimes, the ability to forget the past is a blessing.

 

[c998877]

I learned Gregg at Heald Business College in 1979-80. It was fun. I remember only one character and have forgotten its meaning. I was never asked to use it for business purposes. I may have used it occasionally for personal notes for a short time.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Goodness, I had forgotten all about shorthand. I graduated high school in 1980. At my school, we had a handful of students (less than 10) from my class of 82 students that took a “Business” tract of courses. All were females. They were required to take a year of shorthand. I remember seeing their steno notebooks full of squiggles. It was indecipherable to me. Fun stuff.

 

[38Chevy454]

Haha, my mother used to write her Christmas list in shorthand in case anyone found it.

I do think it's becoming a lost skill.

 

[pacergal]

Required part of jr high school--typing and shorthand class for everyone in 7th grade.
Don't remember any of the shorthand though!

I still remember walking in on test day--a plain piece of paper was taped over the typewriter. You placed your hands underneath it (so you couldn't "cheat" by looking at the letters) and did your timed testing, reading the text on your right and typing it verbatim. Score was based on accuracy and length during the one minute.

 

[JoeWras]

Required part of jr high school--typing and shorthand class for everyone in 7th grade.
Don't remember any of the shorthand though!

Not sure of your age, but this was not required or even part of Jr. HS in my area at my age (I'm 60, so mid 1970s).

I liked computers and my future-looking mom suggested I take summer school class on typing at the local girl's school after my freshman year. She paid like $25 or something. The classes were co-ed in the summer (I'm male). I wasn't the only boy, but we were minority. I think one of the guys was just there to "pick up chicks." Figures.

Of course the girl's school had a billion typewriters. They even let you choose your style, manual or electric. I only recall one poor girl beating the hell out of that manual.

It was the best class I ever took. The next year I took a computer class at my high school and I breezed ahead of everyone else at the keypunch. It has served me well to this day.

frf <space> juj <space>
ded <space> kik <space>
I can still hear the teacher singing out the cadence.

 

[homestead]

Required part of jr high school--typing and shorthand class for everyone in 7th grade.
Don't remember any of the shorthand though!

I still remember walking in on test day--a plain piece of paper was taped over the typewriter. You placed your hands underneath it (so you couldn't "cheat" by looking at the letters) and did your timed testing, reading the text on your right and typing it verbatim. Score was based on accuracy and length during the one minute.

1st day of typing class in high school I walked around the room and noticed about half of the typewriters the keys were blank so I picked one where they were labeled. Did just ok in the class and still peek at the keys today but can go fairly fast.