Today, that age may be reaching its lowest limit, as standardized tests and metrics emphasize the need for exceedingly young learners to successfully navigate a computer. Over time, typing education has evolved in tandem with both the progression of computer technology and the decreasing age at which students are exposed to that technology. I attribute my ability to touch type-to use a keyboard without actually watching my fingers move-almost entirely to this computer game, which is a far cry from the typing courses high-school students took in previous decades and the typewriters they used. Like the characters in Oregon Trail, Freddy the Fish, and other popular games of the early aughts, the time-traveling typing guru of Type to Learn was an inescapable fixture of my elementary-school computer classes. His long, white beard rippled as he traveled in a pink convertible through both time and space.
He wore thick, purple sunglasses that completely hid his eyes at all times. The man who taught me to type was at least 100 years old at the time of my instruction.