I took typing in a US high school in the mid- to late 1960s. Manual machines, a mix of Royals and Underwoods, about 25 or 30 students per class, mostly female. Many were mediocre students who knew they could always find work if they had secretarial skills. A few were interested in journalism or other writing or believed knowing how to type would help them in college, which it did.
They were serious about touch typing, no looking at the keys, and students who could not stop themselves from looking were sometimes assigned to a machine that had capped keys covering the letters.
We had timed self-tests several times a week, and our tests were just more of the same. I never got really fast, but considering that the strength of your fingers affected whether the character struck the paper hard enough to print properly, as well as to raise the platen(?) for capitals, I'm amazed so many of the students did type fast.
Small detail: The typing textbook was designed to stand up in an inverted V, like the materials being typed in one's future office would be. Its cover included a strap which snapped to the other cover, so it would not collapse as the table or typing stand shook with the typing.
Maryn, ancient crone