So many lost skills - Page 6

Still Raining · ‎03-30-2014

Life moves on. We have gained many wonderful skills. I love how I can make a note on one device and have it spread to all the others. Right on the phone I can see when the tires were last rotated and tell the mechanic if they are due. Voicemail is the most wonderful thing ever. Who needs a map when your phone will give voice instructions while you are driving? Good riddance.

panda1234 · ‎04-27-2015

@Puzzle Piece wrote:
Don't know if this was mentioned but how about Geography. I know here in the Los Angeles School District that Geography is taught and hasn't been taught for years. The students haven't a clue what a continent is or where one is. Nor where the states are located. Sad.

Wow did not know that. You are right, very sad.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@mstyrion 1 wrote:
When these kinds of threads come up I always have to wonder why, if you think a skill is important, you don't just teach your kids yourself. Cursive writing, making change, reading a map...
All things a parent could easily teach.

They don't teach embroidery or crocheting or knitting in school and haven't for decades. People managed to pass these skills on without relying on schools to do it.

I don't understand why all the angst about "lost" skills as if losing them were totally out of one's control.

I, for one, have taught my kid all the skills we are talking about here, the problem is other people and their lack of basic skills (like simple math), which make them unable to function without their technology.

That is something to have angst about. Their lack of basic skills can easily affect me and my life, when they can't do the simplest things.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@panda1234 wrote:
@Mominohio just remembered something. Sent my husband to the store to buy something I ran out of. To make sure he bought the correct item, I took a picture of the wrapper with his phone and he just had to find the item on the shelve. Phone came in handy that time.

@panda1234

Ha! made me laugh! I can see, living with two men, how that could be very necessary! Especially today when there are seventeen versions of what used to be just one thing!

I'm old fashioned enough, I would have torn off the label and given it to them. My concern is that many today, if the phone was gone, wouldn't know enough to tear off the label and take it with them, but be paralyzed by confusion!

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@mstyrion 1 wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
@mstyrion 1 wrote:
Every generation bemoans the skills that don't carry over to the next generation.
We no longer write with quill and ink. We no longer make our own clothes out of necessity. we no longer wash our clothes in a stream. We no longer keep horses for our only transportation.

As technology changes, so do we change. It's life and it's been this way since humans first evolved.

I'm 61 years old and I was never any good at reading a map nor was Math my strong suit. I am more than happy to use technology for things that never did work well for me.
You just have to hope that that technology never fails you.

We traveled to the Boston area a week ago, and the GPS failed us repeatedly. It kept saying it couldn't get a satellite. If we didn't have maps and the knowledge to read them, we would have been up the creek, trying to reach our destination in a new and strange area to us. Yes, we could have stopped and asked directions, but what if we were somewhere that there were few places to stop and ask?
__________________________________________________________
I don't drive cross country.
If the trip is more than 4 hours, I fly.
Four hours from anywhere I am, I know the route.
Planes don't get lost.

You seem to have an answer for everything, but no real solutions for real problems. Hope that keeps working for you.

SaRina · ‎04-17-2015

@Mominohio wrote:
@jackthebear wrote:
@Jacie wrote:
I don't disagree, technology marches forward. However, since we still use money, it would be nice if people knew how to count/make change.

SURPRISE. Have parents and teachers let us down yet again on the basics?
different topics are being taught in the schools, we can disagree about it, but perhaps the need to make change isn't needed, Heck if I needed to count change back now I wouldn't be able to automatically either

Those who don't get it, tend to be taken advantage of, whether it is the new technologies or the old skills. Best to know both, don't you think.

Perhaps we are the fortunate ones for this reason. We can take solace in knowing (and teaching, if we choose) those skills that are disappearing....and we can have the benefits of new technology. But I would bet there will come a time that there is no need for the older skills. Right now, we are in transition, so both old and new are of benefit.

kdgn · ‎03-09-2010

The need to count change back disappeared when cash registers became sophisticated enough to tell the person what amount of money to return to the customer.

Amount tendered minus the amount charged=change back. That's how it's been done for a very long time now. And that's how the cashier has been taught to give the change: the total return given on the receipt.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Still Raining wrote:
Life moves on. We have gained many wonderful skills. I love how I can make a note on one device and have it spread to all the others. Right on the phone I can see when the tires were last rotated and tell the mechanic if they are due. Voicemail is the most wonderful thing ever. Who needs a map when your phone will give voice instructions while you are driving? Good riddance.

I really don't believe people who don't seem to get it. What are you going to do if you don't have that technology? Even if for just a few days? Do you, even though you like and use the 'new' ways, have the skills to get by without it and still function fully?

If not, your good riddance will turn to dismay pretty quickly.

mstyrion 1 · ‎09-18-2014

@Mominohio wrote:
@mstyrion 1 wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
@mstyrion 1 wrote:
Every generation bemoans the skills that don't carry over to the next generation.
We no longer write with quill and ink. We no longer make our own clothes out of necessity. we no longer wash our clothes in a stream. We no longer keep horses for our only transportation.

As technology changes, so do we change. It's life and it's been this way since humans first evolved.

I'm 61 years old and I was never any good at reading a map nor was Math my strong suit. I am more than happy to use technology for things that never did work well for me.
You just have to hope that that technology never fails you.

We traveled to the Boston area a week ago, and the GPS failed us repeatedly. It kept saying it couldn't get a satellite. If we didn't have maps and the knowledge to read them, we would have been up the creek, trying to reach our destination in a new and strange area to us. Yes, we could have stopped and asked directions, but what if we were somewhere that there were few places to stop and ask?
__________________________________________________________
I don't drive cross country.
If the trip is more than 4 hours, I fly.
Four hours from anywhere I am, I know the route.
Planes don't get lost.
You seem to have an answer for everything, but no real solutions for real problems. Hope that keeps working for you.

___________________________________________________________

You seem to want to attack personally when faced with disagreement.

For what it's worth, go back and read my post about parents teaching their kids skills that are no longer taught in schools. That suggestion would be defined as a solution.

~Enough is enough~

mstyrion 1 · ‎09-18-2014

@kdgn wrote:
The need to count change back disappeared when cash registers became sophisticated enough to tell the person what amount of money to return to the customer.

Amount tendered minus the amount charged=change back. That's how it's been done for a very long time now. And that's how the cashier has been taught to give the change: the total return given on the receipt.

___________________________________________________________________

Agree, kdgn.

That technology was in existence when I worked at a fast food restaurant in the early 1970's.

~Enough is enough~