Posted on 10/03/2010 7:23:17 PM PDT by Immerito
NEW YORK — Second-graders who can’t tie shoes or zip jackets. Four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers. Five-year-olds in strollers. Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays. College kids who have never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope.
Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?
Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter "literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else."
Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her "kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger."
Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores. Take-out and drive-through meals have replaced home cooking. And busy families who can afford it often outsource house-cleaning and lawn care.
(Excerpt) Read more at thechronicleherald.ca ...
...and this is the mentality that explains WHY kids know how to do less than they ought to know.
I was taking my clothes to the laundromat in a wagon when I was 9 or 10 years old. Course I could also go to the store and but Pall Malls for my dad back then too.
Well, when they have to do laundry, or change a tire, or read an analog watch, they will either figure it you (youTube is an excellent source) or they will die.
Most will learn; and those that don’t - oh, well.
> “’Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her ‘kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger’.... Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores.”
The remedy is in two words: “Parris Island.”
My daughters’ do seem to have “issues†when it comes to doing laundry. But then my wife has barred me from doing laundry due to unsubstantiated allegations of shrinkage/
Survival of the fittest. Either you work for Subway or design subways.
We are not teaching our children anything anymore. I’ve heard of a number of teenagers dying from carbon monoxide lately. They were never taught that those little disposible barbecue trays should never be used in an enclosed area. They use them to heat travel trailers and even the cabs of pickup trucks overnight. That stuff drives me insane.
VeLcro is spelled with two Zs...
Butthead: "I hate numbers."
Beavis: "Yeah, there's like too many of them."
Many of my 7th graders can’t tell time on an analogue clock.
And you can totally forget about figuring something out on their own, like changing a fluorescent light bulb. But I wonder, how much harder was it for the boomers parents and what didn’t they teach us?
“Mark Bauerlein, author of the bestselling book The Dumbest Generation, which contends that cyberculture is turning young people into know-nothings, says “the absence of technology” confuses kids faced with simple mechanical tasks.”
(You can't blame it all on technology. Much of it is LAZY parents that ALLOW this to dominate the lives of their kids.)
“But Bauerlein says there’s a second factor: “a loss of independence and a loss of initiative.” He says that growing up with cellphones and Google means kids don’t have to figure things out or solve problems any more. They can look up what they need online or call mom or dad for step-by-step instructions. And today’s helicopter parents are more than happy to oblige, whether their kids are 12 or 22.”
(Yes, NO initiative. No imagination. All these attributes lead to innovation. They don't figure out things. They buy a kit and all the parts are there and directions on how to assemble it and what they purpose is. There is no way they canimporvise on things unless it is laid out for them. They don't THINK! They just want to be entertained!)
“It’s the dependence factor, the unimaginability of life without the new technology, that is making kids less entrepreneurial, less initiative-oriented, less independent,” Bauerlein said.”
(Yes they are VERY dependent of the GROUP and what the GROUP CONCENSUS is. This is all part of collaborative training. It's all about PROCESS. They don't care about the RESULTS. They CARE about how the student is INTERACTING with otter students. You don't need to KNOW anything but you should know WHERE to go to GET THE ANSWERS.)
We have a disaster looming in front of us. Obama’s “Race to the Top” is even worse. Here he will get his wish of leveling GOOD STATES with higher standards DOWN. It's all a LEVELING DOWN using FEDERAL STANDARDS. State's Right are being circumvented so that you have NO CONTROL at all. If you live in New York, you're FEDERAL standard for your public school curriculum will be the same as if you live in Mass..
I distinctly recall Obama saying or reading a quote from him that stated he wanted it to be that if you are in fourth grade for example, and move to Texas midyear, you'll have the same federal standard for your books and curriculum. He couldn't understand why STATES should not all be the same. Naturally the leveling is DOWN. He is accomplishing this through the “Race to the Top”. In truth it is a Race to the Bottom.
That’s good. But I’m so old I remember when I was 8 going up to the corner tavern to get my Gramps a dime bucket of beer!
I used YouTube to learn how to cut down a tree, remove a stump, and build garage shelves.
Oh boy. My 8 yo son can’t tie his shoelaces. He wears cowboy boots or shoes that either have velcro or are already tied (he slips his feet in). OTOH, he knows his Roman numerals.
You got that right!
Not everyone is cut out for the military, but, I think most young people could benefit from a boot camp for life skills. This is something that could be part of high school. If we’re going to teach them how to use a rubber, the least we can do is tell them about doing laundry, balancing a checkbook, budgeting your money, how credit cards and mortgages work, how car loans work, etc.
“VeLcro is spelled with two Zs...”
Aetrex
Women’s Double Velcro Walker
White
I suppose spelling varies?
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