Gregg Shorthand (and other "obsolete" yet Useful skills)

[Gil]

I know that handwriting is considered a dying subject in my area schools, and apparently Shorthand is already dead because I don't think a dozen schools in the country still teach it.

However, I found out about Short Hand within recent times and I purchased some books on Gregg Short hand and we've been learning and practicing it.

Are there any other courses/skills that used to be taught in schools, but isn't anymore? If so, what are they?

 

[Clarita]

Home Economics.

 

[Rosie_0801]

Oh, I wanted to teach shorthand to dd. It seemed a good idea for a dysgraphic kid.

[EKS]

Shop.

[Ellie]

21 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Oh, I wanted to teach shorthand to dd. It seemed a good idea for a dysgraphic kid.

FYI: Shorthand will totally mess with one's spelling skills, as the words are written as they sound. I had two years of shorthand in high school (plus two years of typing, which I don't think is actually taught any longer; it's not the same as keyboarding), and I lost my spelling skills for awhile.

[Rosie_0801]

7 minutes ago, Ellie said:

FYI: Shorthand will totally mess with one's spelling skills, as the words are written as they sound. I had two years of shorthand in high school (plus two years of typing, which I don't think is actually taught any longer; it's not the same as keyboarding), and I lost my spelling skills for awhile.

I figured I'd teach her shorthand for note taking, then have her write or type it out later when she wasn't under a time constraint. It's moot now though. 

[Gil]

13 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Oh, I wanted to teach shorthand to dd. It seemed a good idea for a dysgraphic kid.

Do it. The Boys think it's very useful and there is a huge "cool" factor to it since most people can not read it.

[Dianthus]

I was considering it with my 10 yr old. He is always making codes. But his spelling has improved so much this year that I'm not about to mess with it.

[Gil]

27 minutes ago, Spirea said:

I was considering it with my 10 yr old. He is always making codes. But his spelling has improved so much this year that I'm not about to mess with it.

Pal was a troubled-speller all through elementary school and into middle school. He's gotten to a solid level of spelling now but I'm teaching him shorthand anyway. For him, the ability to quickly write down notes is worth the extra hassle.

[Gil]

14 hours ago, Ellie said:

FYI: Shorthand will totally mess with one's spelling skills, as the words are written as they sound. I had two years of shorthand in high school (plus two years of typing, which I don't think is actually taught any longer; it's not the same as keyboarding), and I lost my spelling skills for awhile.

Which years did you take Short Hand?

Do you remember which Short hand was taught?

Any tips on how to most effectively practice it?

How did you use it when you were younger?

Do you still use it?

[Junie]

My mom was griping one year about how it would be useful to keep her Christmas shopping list in the kitchen, but she didn't want me and my brother and sister to be able to read what she was buying.  Stupid me suggested that she write it in shorthand (which only she could read).  So she made a list (writing our names out!) and kept it on the fridge where it tormented us for weeks. :)

She excelled at shorthand in high school.  She loved it and used it often while I was growing up.  My MIL also took shorthand in high school and still had her Gregg's shorthand textbooks.  When MIL passed away, I asked FIL if I could have the shorthand books to give to my mom.  FIL was glad to be rid of them, and my mom was thrilled to get them.

[rose]

I've never considered shorthand. I personally think that many handicrafts are way under valued. I think that some areas of Europe still intentionally teach handwork. Even if the child never takes off with knitting or woodwork at least they learn how to control their hands. I've tried to teach a few adults to knit but they just couldn't get their hands to obey. I suspect the lack of cursive practice is only going to exacerbate this problem.

I was just looking into basket making with my children and came upon this old gem:

https://archive.org/details/handworkitsplace00plai/page/n13/mode/2up

[Gil]

57 minutes ago, Junie said:

My mom was griping one year about how it would be useful to keep her Christmas shopping list in the kitchen, but she didn't want me and my brother and sister to be able to read what she was buying.  Stupid me suggested that she write it in shorthand (which only she could read).  So she made a list (writing our names out!) and kept it on the fridge where it tormented us for weeks. 🙂

That was a good idea, but man, did you play yourself.

I wish I had the discipline to learn some language or code that I could use to keep things secret from The Boys.

[LauraClark]

I had never even heard of shorthand-fascinating!  I agree with above posters-pretty much anything not computer related (handwriting, how to cook, shop, Latin, etc) is no longer taught in PS and those are things I want to teach my kids.

[Gil]

27 minutes ago, LauraClark said:

I had never even heard of shorthand-fascinating!  I agree with above posters-pretty much anything not computer related (handwriting, how to cook, shop, Latin, etc) is no longer taught in PS and those are things I want to teach my kids.

I've never been sold on the supposed benefits of learning Latin--we went the route of root-based vocabulary building which has definitely been beneficial. Latin/Greek vocab combined with actually learning modern languages instead has been a better combination of benefits, in my opinion.

 

On 11/24/2021 at 1:11 PM, rose said:

I've never considered shorthand. I personally think that many handicrafts are way under valued. I think that some areas of Europe still intentionally teach handwork. Even if the child never takes off with knitting or woodwork at least they learn how to control their hands. I've tried to teach a few adults to knit but they just couldn't get their hands to obey. I suspect the lack of cursive practice is only going to exacerbate this problem.

I was just looking into basket making with my children and came upon this old gem:

https://archive.org/details/handworkitsplace00plai/page/n13/mode/2up

The Boys learned to sew--both by hand and with a machine. I definitely think it's beneficial.
 

[serendipitous journey]

On 11/23/2021 at 6:32 PM, EKS said:

Shop.

No shop??

[EKS]

Just now, serendipitous journey said:

No shop??

A lot of schools have gotten rid of shop.  Which is a tragedy, IMO.

[Ellie]

On 11/24/2021 at 10:59 AM, Gil said:

Which years did you take Short Hand?

Do you remember which Short hand was taught?

Any tips on how to most effectively practice it?

How did you use it when you were younger?

Do you still use it?

I took Gregg Diamond Jubilee shorthand,1966-67, and 1967-68, my sophomore and junior years of high school.

My second-year teacher encouraged us to practice by copying print material, as often as we could.

As it turns out, even back then I didn't use it very much on the job, and I got married young, so there you go. I used it some for taking notes in Sunday school. 🙂 And I haven't used it in a very, very long time.

I did two years of typing and two years of shorthand. I think those classes actually augmented my English classes as far as writing, because we learned that as good secretaries (that was my track in high school, not college) we would be writing and editing letters our employers would dictate, and we learned to vary word usage, write concisely, and so on. I also learned how to format all sorts of things, from business letters to order forms to books, and I've used those skills, even though I don't actually use shorthand.

[ScoutTN]

On 11/24/2021 at 12:11 PM, rose said:

I've never considered shorthand. I personally think that many handicrafts are way under valued. I think that some areas of Europe still intentionally teach handwork. Even if the child never takes off with knitting or woodwork at least they learn how to control their hands. I've tried to teach a few adults to knit but they just couldn't get their hands to obey. I suspect the lack of cursive practice is only going to exacerbate this problem.

I was just looking into basket making with my children and came upon this old gem:

https://archive.org/details/handworkitsplace00plai/page/n13/mode/2up

Waldorf schools still teach many handcrafts.

[knitgrl]

On 11/24/2021 at 1:03 AM, Clarita said:

Home Economics.

 

When my oldest was in ps, he took "Family Consumer Science."

[Gil]

On 11/30/2021 at 12:50 AM, Ellie said:

I took Gregg Diamond Jubilee shorthand,1966-67, and 1967-68, my sophomore and junior years of high school.

My second-year teacher encouraged us to practice by copying print material, as often as we could.

As it turns out, even back then I didn't use it very much on the job, and I got married young, so there you go. I used it some for taking notes in Sunday school. 🙂 And I haven't used it in a very, very long time.

I did two years of typing and two years of shorthand. I think those classes actually augmented my English classes as far as writing, because we learned that as good secretaries (that was my track in high school, not college) we would be writing and editing letters our employers would dictate, and we learned to vary word usage, write concisely, and so on. I also learned how to format all sorts of things, from business letters to order forms to books, and I've used those skills, even though I don't actually use shorthand.

Thank you for this information.

We're endeavoring to learn Gregg Shorthand thoroughly but I wish I had more insight on how to best learn and practice Gregg. We've been learning the orthography and doing the dictation exercises and tons of review.

We're using materials published in 1916 (Manual + Dictionary) and 1919 (Graded Readings and Speed Studies).
We're doing and redoing the manual lessons and packing in tons of review. Lots of copying practice and some dictation too.

The Boys think it would have been wonderful to know Gregg years ago--just to make their notes in Gregg and do drafts for school reports in and I while I wholeheartedly agree, I told them to be grateful they're learning it now, rather than after college.

 

 

[mom2bee]

As some folks know, I am a huge fan of Gregg Shorthand and I have some of the original student books for 3 different versions of Gregg Shorthand: Pre-Aniversary Gregg Shorthand, Gregg Notehand and Gregg Shorthand Simplified for Colleges. They are a part of my treasured books library.

I like Notehand best for modern students because it explicitly teaches students to take notes and study. It's not meant for verbatim dictation and is easier to learn. I think that Notehand would take about a semester and should be began in 6th or 7th grade so that students have the chance to make it "a part of them" prior to changing campuses in 9th grade.

As a nation, our students lack general knowledge and self-learning skills of critical reading, note-making and revision techniques.

If a lot more high-school students possessed the ability to read-to-learn, knew how to make notes, study and knew how to leverage memory techniques, I think we'd have greater levels of innovation and reach a greater percentage of our youth academically.

 

[Ellie]

On 12/19/2021 at 9:51 AM, Gil said:

Thank you for this information.

We're endeavoring to learn Gregg Shorthand thoroughly but I wish I had more insight on how to best learn and practice Gregg. We've been learning the orthography and doing the dictation exercises and tons of review.

We're using materials published in 1916 (Manual + Dictionary) and 1919 (Graded Readings and Speed Studies).
We're doing and redoing the manual lessons and packing in tons of review. Lots of copying practice and some dictation too.

The Boys think it would have been wonderful to know Gregg years ago--just to make their notes in Gregg and do drafts for school reports in and I while I wholeheartedly agree, I told them to be grateful they're learning it now, rather than after college.

Well, I don't have any insight, but I do think my teacher's assignment to copy text as much as possible really helped with fluency. We copied everything--magazines, newspaper articles, favorite books, everything.

[Gil]

27 minutes ago, Ellie said:

Well, I don't have any insight, but I do think my teacher's assignment to copy text as much as possible really helped with fluency. We copied everything--magazines, newspaper articles, favorite books, everything.

We've done a bit of copying, but I'm definitely aiming to make it a daily practice going forward.

 

[Resilient]

My great uncle wrote me notes in Gregg Shorthand.  He ran a business school, and I am pretty sure he was born in the 1800s. The notes are a treasure to me.  But I can't really read them.  I wish I could.  Shorthand is a GREAT skill.