So many lost skills - Page 5

panda1234 · ‎04-27-2015

@Mominohio wrote:
Just responded in Among Friends to a post about people not knowing how to make change after a purchase.

Got me to thinking about all the simple basic skills that are being lost.

Making change
Cursive writing
Reading a map
Putting pencil to paper

Here is a story about the last one (sorry if I have shared it elsewhere)

About four years ago, my son came out of a high school basketball game, worried about a player that had be hurt and taken to the hospital. He lamented that because he wasn't on FB, he wouldn't know updates on the kid. I asked if someone could call him. He said yes and went back int the school to give a girl his number.

When he came back out, I asked if he found her and gave our number. He said, that he did find her, but she couldn't take his number, because she didn't have her phone on her (to enter his number into)!

WHAT??!! You are in a school. How many pieces of paper and writing instruments must be laying around there? No one could even take a pen and jot his number down on their hand or arm?

It scares me what people can't do or figure out now a days.

Care to share a story about skills that just a few years ago were 'universal' but seem to have all but disappeared?

That is a great story and so very true. Thanks for sharing, made me laugh.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@hckynut wrote:

@Mominohio

I left my response in that thread also. Happy to see you taught your kids how to do basic math without a calculator. It is a shame that so many have to rely exclusively on electronics to do simple add/subtract and divide.

I an typing this on our tablet from my hospital room. Been here since Saturday afternoon with suspected heart issues. Also since my Hemoglobin numbers have dropped drastically, once again, internal bleeding is the suspect.

Have a Pandanoscopy(Colonoscopy and Endo) in 1 procedure, scheduled for tomorrow. So looks like I will be drinking my 20th Gallon of GoLytley Colon Cleaner later today.

Anyways, math/bookkeeping/general business were my main classes in high school. Working with money, in my opinion, a person needs more than exclusive electronic devices to complete cash and other transactions.

hckynut(john)

@hckynut

Hate that you are in the hospital, and not home with your furbabies!

Hope they get you up and running again real soon, and we'll be here to keep you company until you have someone better to chat with LOL!

Plaid Pants2 · ‎03-14-2015

We also don't use the abacus, slide rule, or the mimeograph machine anymore.

Time marches on.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@SaRina wrote:
@jackthebear wrote:
well people don't ride horses to town anymore either, life moves on
I was going to point this out. We also don't light kerosene lamps or cook our meals over the fire.

It's sad to us because these are things we grew up doing and we are now in the midst of change. But as humankind evolves, so must technology and our ways. We will most likely look very different in the long-term future too.

I agree, that all things evolve, and many drop from use/fashion over time. But losing some skills, like reading a map, knowing basic math without a computerized aid, or having a kerosene lamp for power outages may lead to danger over time.

Everyone should know how to live and perform without power and all the things that come with it, even if for just a few days. One never knows when one may be stranded without all the creature comforts of today, and have to use basic skills, common sense and imagination.

Those who don't teach at least some of the 'old ways' to their children are doing them a disservice.

panda1234 · ‎04-27-2015

@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.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@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?

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@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.

WSfan · ‎03-09-2010

A lot of this is truly sad. Can't figure out directions on a map, even when north is indicated? Wonder if they even know what north, south, east and west is? Don't know what the continents are? Can't carry on a conversation even when they're sitting next to each other? Yikes! My worry is cursive writing. If they stop teaching it, our future generations will never be able to read what was written by the generations of family members before them. Cards, letters, post cards, recipes, etc. will all be a foreign language to them. Or how about not being able to read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, etc.? Whoever came up with this idiotic idea of not teaching cursive, better rethink this.

mstyrion 1 · ‎09-18-2014

@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.

~Enough is enough~

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@ChynnaBlue wrote:
Reading a map wasn't a skill most people had long before GPS. I used to work in a job where we analyzed maps and property all day. I worked with the company for 13 years and spent 8 of those years training people. Each new hire went through a 2-week training course to learn about the different types of maps, learn how locate the same property on a street map, a plat/property boundary map, a survey, a FEMA flood map, and aerial map. They had to learn to read the different scales on maps and even learn how to measure exactly where a house was on a lot using all of those maps.

We had a lot of people who couldn't tell East from West even with a north arrow on a map. I even encountered three people, including a city planner, who couldn't tell North from South. Many of the people who came in had little to no experience reading maps. I remember reading maps as part of my elementary school classes, but it appeared that schools must no longer cover this information.

And this article is from 1993, decades before GPS in most cars and every smart phone: http://articles.mcall.com/1993-08-05/features/2934587_1_cartographers-franklin-maps-social-studies

Oh, and the making of maps, as well as reading them. I think I made an entire Atlas during grade school, they had us doing so much with maps!

I'm glad they did!