Posted on 07/25/2021 1:51:37 PM PDT by rktman
We had to make a cutting board out of wood for my 7th grade shop class. I brought it to our fiftieth HS reunion several of my fellow alums still had their boards.
Our parents made sure we kids could do all the basics - cook, clean, sew, use tools, swim, give first aid, do budgets, shoot, etc. We also had to learn basic philosophy, a language, and art appreciation. They encouraged us to learn a skill independent of our careers, and to live in a foreign country for at least a year.
My parents were lower middle class, but almost all of those things were cheap to learn, and have kept all four of us in good stead throughout our lives, although I do wish I had taken the time to learn to dance more than the waltz and polka, and play my grandfather’s viola.
A lot of the kids around me can’t even read or do math, much less take care of themselves. There are a few stars, but too many aspiring rap artists.
These coddled kids need to reach out and learn those skills themselves. It has never been easier than it is via the Internet today.
Unfortunately, the Internet has also contributed to their having the attention spans of gnats, so however easy it is it is still a major challenge to them.
They should teach them how to kill, clean, and cook a chicken. No degree without this knowledge.
Ended up being the most useful courses I took in high school. Even today, there are very few men who can write a proper business letter or be beyond the "hunt and peck" method of typing. It's one of the main reasons I hold a VP title today.
In today's business world, secretaries are few and far between. Executives are expected to have the skill set that used to be delegated to the secretarial pool.
My 12 year old grandson has been in charge of washing his own clothes since he was ten. Kids that are not taught basic household skills will have a hard time in life.
Good suggestion BUT who could TEACH IT? Colleges / Universities are not called 'Ivory Towers' for nothing! And TODAY, it is worse than ever!
Remember the single serve cereal boxes you cut open and poured milk in?
“Ended up being the most useful courses (typing) I took in high school.”
Me, too. I was in Advanced Placement all through school, but my Personal Typing elective class was the one that got me in the door at some of the top companies and allowed me to move up beyond clerical quickly. 110 WPM had me beating just about everybody else.
Today I woke up and read what I had missed before I had awakened. I went back to sleep.
Yes. Those were the kind I would buy, but I would usually still pour the cereal in a bowl unless in what during a Summer Camp situation.
The college one of my sons attended had no dorms. They had apartments. Wanna eat? Go to the store, buy food and cook it.
He’s an astronautical engineer who worked for a home remodeler two summers. Plenty of life skills.
Hear, hear !
Exactly right !
College should teach that? We learned all that in high school and Junior High. We had Shop and Home Economics. In sixth grade we learned some banking, how to write a check and balance a check book — Social Studies, I think.
Wait. You mean they didn’t learn life skills in their humanities classes?
I agree. When I was at the University of Texas back in the '70s, I intentionally took some elective courses I thought would help me in the real world.
I took a pharmacology course for non-pharmacy students and I learned about all the various meds of the day, including the differences between ibuprofen, acetaminophen and aspirin. I took a "home ec" course that, among other things, taught me about insurance and home budgeting. Since I had a fairly sheltered home experience, these would help me adapt to being an adult out on my own.
One thing I remember was when we had a class on birth control methods. We were given the efficacy rates of all the different choices of the time and the worst choice for birth control was to use a condom. It was only 86% effective at preventing pregnancy, they said. Then came the AIDS crisis and, magically, condoms became the Silver Bullet for stopping everything, even though the HIV virus was much much smaller than the size of a human sperm that the condom was designed to stop and failed 14% of the time even then. Fast forward to today when the media is feeding us the same BS about COVID vaccines.
Ask average people what the COVID vaccine is supposed to do and they'll tell you it is supposed to prevent the virus from infecting you. Only recently have the health specialists backpedaled and said the vaccine is only able to lessen the severity should you get infected, this as thousands who got "the jab" still got sick.
Back to the elective courses, I was glad that UT offered these "dumbed down" courses for non-majors but your typical freshman or sophomore chose more popular electives like Human Sexuality or Guitar Playing.
One of my coworkers, age about 25, was going on a trip to Spain. A rental car with an automatic would have cost about $500 more for two weeks, so I taught her to drive a manual, sort of.
If used-car prices ever get realistic again, I need to replace our sedan. It was hard finding a stick shift 10 years ago, and I expect it to be even worse now. My wife and I both prefer manual transmission cars.
NOW you tell me.
Yup. Still do those corners 50+ years after boot camp.
I think it’s a love/hate thing with them.
Stop and Go traffic....anyone that likes a stick is a masochist.
But they are fun as hell.
My ‘77 Bronco is a 4 speed and I absolutely love driving it.
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