Jewish Musings, Tuesday 9/5

[lee058]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.





Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:







Holly

Lee

Louise

Lynne

Peachy





And for those of you who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE!

Today's topic: Was there a class in school that helped you later at work?

For me, it was typing! My parents had an old manual typewriter but I never learned how to use it. I took a typing class in 8th or maybe it was 9th grade, and it was a big deal that we had Selectrics. I liked it and did well in the class. This was a good thing, as I needed to type at some of my various jobs, especially as a technical writer.

Tomorrow, I would like us to write about our experiences in "higher education."

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[peachymom1]

Good morning and happy Tuesday! I'm having technical issues with my work laptop, so while I'm on hold with the help desk, I'm here to visit you ladies.

I took typing in 8th grade because my older sisters said typing would be useful. We had an old Smith Corona manual typewriter, and my sisters used to type their papers on it. My typing teacher had a bulletin board in his classroom, the length of the long wall of the room, which he decorated as a racetrack with a finish line. He made cardboard cars with our names on them, and every time we had a timed typing test to see how many words a minute we could type, he advanced our cars to that number on the race track. Whoever got to 60 words a minute first would win a $5.00 prize. Guess who won? Yep, me! I'm not normally all that competitive, but I really wanted the five bucks, which was a lot in the 70s. My teacher actually stressed accuracy even more than speed, and I'm especially grateful for that. On Fridays, he'd play records and have us type to the rhythm of the songs, which was a lot of fun.

I became so good at typing that not only was I able to type my own papers, I typed my friends' papers for them as well. Accuracy was an enormous help, since we didn't have self-correcting ribbons or anything fancy at the time. In college, and when I was a SAHM, I made money typing people's papers for them, and again, speed and accuracy made a big difference. I was able to get a part-time office job when I was still in college because I could type so well. When I left the teaching profession and had to figure out what the heck I could do to support myself and family, I went to a temp agency, and they kept me working because of my skills and my work ethic. I never dreamed I would become a career admin -- that one typing class had a much more long-reaching effect than I ever could have imagined when I took it, and that $5.00 prize was just the beginning!

[gazelle18]

For me, it was definitely Speech and Debate Class. I learned how to argue, how to project my voice, how to form complete sentences while thinking on my feet, etc., etc.

[hollygail]

I didn't get to post yesterday. What Labor Day means to me:
1. High Holy Days! My first meeting with my buddy John to determine which English readings we'll offer to which people who've volunteered (or whom we can recruit) is scheduled for early this afternoon.
2. Sunday school is about to start! (Next Sunday is the first day; it's also the day we've been invited to help a friend celebrate his 75th birthday; I got someone to finish my class so I can leave early enough to arrive at the celebration the least "late" as possible.)
3. As a child, it meant the following Monday would be the first day of school. However, here, school started a week or two ago (depending on which school district; not one of them hasn't started yet).
4. More recently than my childhood were my careers and as was said yesterday, another day off with pay.

Today's thread:
I too took typing (in7th grade) and yes, it did help in lots of situations for the rest of my life. One of the required classes I had as an undergrad was from the Speech Dept. It taught me little things about how to speak in front of people, which I had already been doing, but I learned more in that class. For sure it came in handy when I was on the Speakers Bureau for the Tucson Rape Crisis Center (which has since changed its name, though I don't know its current designation). It was also very handy when I had to make presentations at several of my jobs across a few careers. And now I teach, both adults and pre-teens (and very young adolescents), where it may be the most important.

[louise]

I was in a special math class in what we called junior high. We were encouraged to make up our own theorems, etc. It was very a good exercise for analytical thinking and along with that came the confidence to reason out solutions.