After-School Program Teaches 4th-Graders Computer Skills
Five days a week, 16 children at Monte Vista Street Elementary School in Highland Park happily put in an extra hour at school so they can participate in KidType, a pilot program that teaches fourth-grade students how to type on computers and other skills.
After completing the class, the students may take the computers home.
Funded by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Riordan Foundation, the KidType program has been in effect for a year at this elementary school and two others--Grape Street Elementary in Watts and 109th Street Elementary in South Los Angeles.
Tuesday at Monte Vista Street, the students were so absorbed into the computers that they didn’t even take a break when Mayor Richard Riordan dropped by to say hello.
“This is a fantastic program,” the mayor said as he admired how one 10-year-old attacked the keyboard of a computer with speed and intensity.
“I like to write about my family,” said Tanya Ivanes, 10, who said she can type 65 words per minute. “One day we went to Arroyo Park and then I wrote all about it on the computer.”
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