Kevin Pajak and Ralph Breen will spend most of Labor Day weekend driving a box truck from Philadelphia to Crowley, Texas. Their cargo? More than two dozen manual typewriters bought and serviced by W.P.M. Typewriter Shop & Garden in Mt. Airy.
As an embedded English professor at Crowley Collegiate Academy, Pajak says it’s clear to him that many of his students are using alternative means like AI to write their papers. While Pajak believes AI can be a helpful tool, he wants his students to be able to think critically and independently.
“For any kind of writing they have to do where I don’t want them to use assistance and just use their own brains, I’ll have them type it,” explains Pajak. “They might go home and clean it up a bit with assistance, but the initial thought process will be theirs."
While computer applications can offer spell check and assist with capitalization and punctuation, Pajak says students need to learn how to think originally and put their ideas into words in a way that is intentional and organized. The analog nature of typewriting is additionally reinforcing.
“It’s the physicality of it,” said Pajak. “You're laying down something. You have to mean it and it really entrenches the knowledge into your brain with every keystroke.”
There is an ongoing debate among teachers and academics on the role of technology in schools, from cell phones to AI. Using typewriters addresses concerns about students using AI to write papers, but Pajak says this is not his primary reason for introducing them to his classes.
“I need them to go deeper into their thought processes, and typing will help them do that,” said Pajak. “It really allows for developing critical thinking skills, which is often missing in education. That’s the key of all my classes.”
While typewriting is a useful tool for his classes, finding two dozen working typewriters was a challenge for Pajak. After some research, he found the W.P.M. Typewriter Shop & Garden in Mt. Airy.
Pamela Rogow, the owner of W.P.M. (which stands for Words Per Minute) Typewriter Shop & Garden, sells, rents, and services typewriters, and also teaches workshops to people of all ages on how to touch-type, the practice of typewriting without looking at the keys.
“It was only when I was watching people typewrite and use the typewriter that I really thought about how people learn,” said Rogow. “I became enamored with the idea of typewriters being a tool to cultivate attention span, critical thinking, and creativity.”
After extensive research, Pajak reached out to Rogow to see if he could get enough typewriters for his class — typewriters that not only worked properly, but would also be given a high level of restoration and repair.
Having taught typewriting classes at Germantown Friends School as well as at her shop, Rogow was more than willing to support his efforts.
“I understood exactly why he wanted to do this,” said Rogow. "He didn’t have to convince me of a thing. He put a lot of trust in us. He bought two dozen typewriters, and even though they’re warrantied and he’s technically keen, I threw in a couple more just as a way to say, 'We really do back these up.'”
Typewriting might seem daunting for people used to the conveniences of computers. Most typewriters don’t allow the ability to go back and fix mistakes or wrong letters. However, that forces the user to write more intentionally and not postpone doing their best thinking, according to Rogow.
While the speed of modern computers offers some advantage, the ability to throw words on a screen often doesn’t produce well thought out or meaningful writing. A writer can, of course, go back and edit their work, but may take as much time doing that as they would have if they had taken the time initially to think through and formulate what they intend to write.
“Most people can typewrite 40 to 60 words per minute,” says Rogow. “That is about the speed that people can compose an idea and express it. There’s a fabulous alignment between the two.”
For Elizabeth Azar, learning to typewrite offered a way to break away from screens. As a medical dosimetrist, making radiation therapy plans for cancer patients, she spends eight hours a day between multiple monitors. After work, her screen time often continued on social media, messaging friends and looking for events.
“It felt like a lot of time was being put into these screens,” said Azar. “It’s like my eyes have adjusted to a certain frame rate. I’m so used to scanning things on a monitor that when I’m just sitting in a garden, I notice my eyes dart. I’m trying to take in so much at once. I almost expect things to move faster than they do in real life.”
While social media made keeping up with friends and family convenient, Azar said she felt her online interactions weren’t as meaningful or thoughtful. Azar decided to take a break from social media for the month of August for a mental and physical break.
“Social media is a great place for inspiration, but half the time I don't feel like I’m doing anything with that inspiration,” explained Azar. “I’m eating but not digesting it. In spite of having all this creativity that I can observe, I felt I wasn’t putting anything out there either.”
She met Rogow outside her shop and was intrigued by the more fundamental writing process with typewriters. As someone who frequently journals, a typewriter provided a way to type legibly and efficiently without a distracting program or application running in the background.
“With a typewriter, I have to be more conscious of what I want to say and when I want to say it,” Azar said. “You don’t have the background helpers to punctuate. I think it’s more difficult for me at this point because I have to slow down my thoughts and really think about what I want to say.”
Azar says she immediately noticed the more steady and rhythmic nature of typewriting. She couldn’t move as quickly, but her movements were more conscious and methodical.
“It made me think of playing an instrument,” said Azar. “You fall into a flow. You get auditory and physical feedback too that you don't really get from a laptop keyboard.”
The auditory rhythmic effect is one of the benefits Rogow says often draws people to try and stick with typewriting.
“The first sound you hear in your whole life is your mother's heartbeat,” said Rogow. “It’s regular, it’s calming at a primordial level. When you typewrite evenly, you are calmer, you are slower, and you have better access to your feelings, ideas and your memories.”
When she first started the W.P.M Typewriter Store, Rogow thought that typewriting could serve as an antidote for excessive screen time. But now, she says it can also be an authentic alternative form of writing at a time when AI-written content proliferates.
“I can’t pretend that typewriting is going to be influential at a societal level,” said Rogow. “The tsunami of AI is larger than anything I can influence. But in the classroom and at the individual level, typewriting can help preserve careful expression.”
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