January 8 is World Typing Day. This makes sense since it's the beginning of the year, and people are writing down goals for their New Year's resolutions. What are your resolutions this year? Do you want to perfect your typing skills like these people are doing in today's photo?
This picture graced the front page of the November 15, 1951 issue of The Romeo Observer Press. It shows 5 students keeping their eyes on the copy and their fingers on the keys in an adult typing class at Romeo High School. The newspaper even identifies them. Starting from the back left and going up, they are Mrs. Donna Stevens, Mrs. Nellie Bogue, Ed Pevitt, Mrs. June Brown, and Mrs. Clara West.
Apparantly, there were 15 members in that class, and it wasn't limited to beginners. In the article entitled "Adult Classes Begin Tonight At High School" in the October 4, 1951 edition, it was intended as a "refresher course in letter writing or any other phase in typing."
In addition, the class work was on an individual basis with everyone working at their own pace.
Typing wasn't the only thing offered for adult education at that time. Other classes included bookkeeping, shorthand, driver training, and English. The article I referenced earlier even mentions that the situation for typing is similar for bookkeeping. It adds that both will "last as long as the students wish, with many students combining the two, spending one hour in typing and one hour in bookkeeping."
In other words, as long as they pay a fee, adult students can attend these sessions as long they want to.
While it's not clear how long Romeo had been offering adult education classes, they were around since at least 1950. The success of the programs that year led to more publicity in the paper in 1951.
Romeo continues to offer adult enrichment and education sessions via the Romeo-Washington-Bruce Parks & Recreation to this very day.
Even though typing has evolved in the 75 years since that photo was taken, celebrate this day by keyboarding your New Year's resolutions on your device.
To learn more about adult education in Romeo, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. If you want to search for articles on that topic, you can find the Romeo newspapers like The Romeo Observer on the Suburban Library Cooperative's Local History Digital Collection website.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer Press, September 20, 1951, p.I-2; October 4, 1951, p.I-1; and November 15, 1951, p.I-1