Mrs. Hemphill's Typing Class

I remember Mrs. Hemphill saying sometime during the semester, "Even though you might not see the value of this class right now, someday you will be glad you took it." Boy, was she right! Learning to type was probably one of the most useful skills I acquired in my early school years. I hoped it would make completing my college papers easier. I had no idea that typing would enable me to participate more fluidly in the digital age.

According to Wikipedia, "typewriters are considered to be the first step toward the development of computers." Invented by Christopher Sholes around 1870, typewriters changed the way writing was produced. The slow process of writing documents by hand was replaced by a tool that improved the speed and efficiency of writing. Typewriting allowed individuals to produce a clean, professional-looking rhetorical space. Microsoft Word and other writing software programs still use this basic page format as a way to produce academic and business texts. Of course typewriting made reading easier too. Handwriting can be messy and difficult to decode. The sharp, standard lettering produced from typewriters gave readers a chance to comprehend text with less distraction. Good web design relies on some of the same basic ideas. But now, with computers, there are infinitely more choices to help generate rhetorical effect. Easy viewing and ready access to digital material can be created through specific fonts, text placement and well-drafted, navigational elements.

In 1973, one hundred years after the typewriter was invented, I was an eighth grader at Pacific Beach Junior High in San Diego, California. My journalism teacher, Mrs. Gentry, encouraged me to take typing as an elective. Mrs. Gentry and the typing teacher, Mrs. Hemphill, were friends. I would see them walking in the halls together and having lunch in the teachers' lounge. I probably wouldn't have given it much thought except that Mrs. Hemphill was African American. And I had never had a black teacher before. Mrs. Hemphill was young, wore hip clothes and had a stylish Afro. In retrospect, I think she made such an impression on me because she was different--someone on the outside of dominant culture. I always felt different too, because I was gay. So, having a teacher that represented something outside the mainstream gave me hope that somehow I would find a way to be in the world.

There was a lot going on in 1973. The empowering lyrics of Bob Marley's song from that year, "Get Up, Stand Up," encouraged people to stop letting themselves be abused and mistreated. Following the anti-discrimination movements of the sixties, the song's popularity demonstrated how social-change ideology was still a major cultural force.



Many of the same words used to fight for civil rights then, can be applied to the struggle for equal rights among gays and lesbians today. In fact, Bayard Rustin, a gay, African-American civil rights activist, and associate of Martin Luther King suggested that gay people were the next group to be concerned about. Rustin was an important behind the scenes figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. And he was a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1986, Rustin said: "The barometer of where one is on human rights questions is no longer the black community, it's the gay community. Because it is the community which is most easily mistreated."

Experts suggest that technology can influence people and help mold society. New developments have fostered a digital medium where the rhetorical possibilities are endless. In Carolyn Handa's book, Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World, Richard Buchanan's article “Rhetoric, Humanism, and Design” extols the powers of design in relation to the world around us: "Design is an instrument of power. It is the art of inventing and shaping two-, three-, and four-dimensional forms that are intended to satisfy needs, wants, and desires, thereby effecting changes in the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of others."

Daniel Anderson's piece, “Prosumer Approaches to New Media Composition: Consumption and Production in Continuum,” for example, demonstrates a multimedia design approach, highlighting the importance of the prosumer. His notion that we can all become designers, imparting a point of view, originating from our own resources, creates a freer exchange of ideas. By coupling a famous literary quote from the T.S. Elliot poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” with a piece of reggae music in the opening credits, Anderson challenges literary elitism, suggesting a need to make great works of literature more accessible. Juxtaposing words with music forms a unique impression, eliciting new ways of thinking about established orthodoxies. The choice of this particular poem is also interesting because at the time the opening lines were considered shocking and offensive. Isn’t innovation, no matter what the discipline, most often met with some form of resistance?

Combinations of images, words and sounds have a powerful effect on the viewer, getting people to think unconventionally. Typing text is just one way to achieve a desired effect or create an argument. Now with video, audio and extensive graphic design capabilities, there are many ways to make rhetorical meaning. Here's a powerful example, from You Tube, of combining visual image, music and words to get the viewer to realize that the "love that dare not speak its name" is valid too. Once again, digital technology helps to push society forward.



Recalling the social, cultural and technological elements of Mrs. Hemphill's typing class enables me to see how these conditions all influenced and worked together simultaneously, setting the stage for future discoveries. I learned a manual skill that would later become an integral part of higher technology, while experiencing the beginnings of a more inclusive society. In a way, the "design" of my class was a true innovation. Much like Wysocki asks in The Multiple Media of Texts, "Is it possible to make designs that ask us to see and to question the cultural and economic assumptions and values guiding the designs, so that we might make designs that help us support and encourage other values if we so wanted?" I think the answer is yes. Just look at this recent example from the Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate. For the first time, voters asked questions to candidates directly via You Tube submissions. This new digital format connects a face to a cause, and helps humanize the concept of equal rights for the GLBT community.



The question remains, did having Mrs. Hemphill as an instructor lead me to challenge the status quo and realize that other social constructs were possible? In her class, I definitely learned more than how to type. I think witnessing a new social order in school contributed to forming new ideas about my own values. Similarly, new technology and innovation in web design can stretch the ways we think and interact.