Shorthand

November 11, 1966, Neenah-Menasha Daily Northwestern

Is shorthand a dead art?  I recall my sister taking shorthand in the '60s and dutifully recording her practice figures into her mandatory shorthand notebook.  They still make the notebooks, but do they still practice the skill? 

It reminds me of all the business courses I took in high school and college.  Learning to type was a boon, though to this day, I cannot type without looking at the keyboard.  I generally credit typing class to knowing where the keys are on the keyboard but that's about it.  With the advent of the computer as word processor, the handling of margins is a dream and counting carriage returns and the sound of the bell at the end are a mere memory.  I ended up majoring in business in college because I thought I was a grown-up and that is what grown-ups do, do the sensible thing. Right.  I even began my college career intending to follow my brother's footsteps into accounting.  After many C's later, I transferred to marketing.  You'd think I would have gotten the message. All in all now, at my advanced age, I think I should have majored in English, or theatre.  I always told my daughters to follow their passions and to not settle.  I think I succeeded in that regard, thank goodness.  I'd hate to think that they too were slaves to the sensible thing, and living lives of quiet desperation, to quote Mr. Thoreau.