It is. When the boys & girls club kids come over, I’m going to make sure there are a few clear plastic containers with the roots showing, so they can see how plants grow.
I was amazed one year. An AG class was assigned the duty of clearing the Sr Center gardens. Two girls were handed a shovel and a hoe. Neither knew how to use them. They both moved the implements around the top of the garden, looking confused. So I took it upon myself to show them what they were supposed to do with the shovel and hoe. Amazing.
“They both moved the implements around the top of the garden, looking confused.”
Someone needs to develop a computer game that teaches them how to use common hand tools. Your report is troubling that a simple shovel and hoe stumps their intelligence.
I called the instructor of a landscaping class at the local Junior College for a student to spade a 8 X 30 patch of new ground and he barely knew which end of the shovel to hold on to. I discharged him after 30 minutes and called instructor and told him to spend one day to two teaching the basics of hand tools..