Are we the only ones putting two spaces after a period or full stop?

I feel like an idiot because I told a friend's child to put two spaces after a period, and I now realize it was probably the wrong information.  I then wondered what I did before court reporting had me trained to do two spaces.  I vaguely recall that I had two spaces in high school and college and then switched to one space in the entertainment industry while doing PR and other types of writing.  (I know that for transcript production I had to work hard to add the comma before the conjunction at the end of a series since it had already been beaten out of me in the workplace as wrong and unnecessary.)

I've read that it ultimately is a style issue that has to do with the fonts used and their respective kerning.  I suspect that, because reporters typically use mono-spaced Courier font, we therefore use two spaces after the period.  We also are held (in California) to minimum character requirements per line, a task more easily accomplished and readable with a mono-spaced font.

What does everyone else think of this issue?  Do most of you put two spaces after a period?  Are we in the dark ages, and I didn't know it?  I don't have kids, but do reporters with kids just leave the grammar and punctuation advice up to the schools?  Of course, they don't even call it "English" anymore.  Out here it's "Language Arts."

Now I'm not so confident that my court reporting knowledge of the language is valid for a modern student...

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/spaces-period-end-of-sentence.aspx

I was taught two spaces after a period.  My son, who is 12, is being taught one space after a period.  I'm not willing to change now, so I will continue to use two spaces.

Old school here ... two spaces after a period.  If you were taught typing, that's the way it was, and still is in my book!!  We were also taught how to spell without spellcheck.   

One space after a comma, two spaces after a period, interrog, and exclamation point.

One space after semicolon, two spaces after a colon.

Old school/schmold school, what is the sense of jamming things closer together?  It's more readable this way!

I agree, Marge.  Old school - great English.  New school, u r rite; no caps, bff, lol, Shut the Front Door and on and on .....

Anita Paul, I wish that I would have had the chance to meet you.  You sound like a very cool woman.  I took the NCRA seminar on realtime writing about 17 years ago and passed the CRR, though your classes sound so much more fun, especially if they involve a cruise. 

Kudos to you....

Leslie