10 Childhood Skills that are No Longer Useful

[wscanlan]

A Funny article I thought you guys would enjoy it. I have to admit I don't think I've written anything aside from my name in cursive in roughly 10 years now, and have no idea how to even write some of the letters.

10 Childhood Skills that are No Longer Useful

Can you guys think of any other ones?

 

[golfgal]

Wow, what a sad list. I have to agree with the cursive and MAYBE the phone number things but not learning to ride a bike or respect teachers??? (and all the rest for that matter).

 

[Boston Tea Party]

Wow, what a sad list. I have to agree with the cursive and MAYBE the phone number things but not learning to ride a bike or respect teachers??? (and all the rest for that matter).

What a sad blog with colorful language.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

LOL - getting a video game cartridge to work! I remember that

 

[ChefColette]

I don't agree with a lot of the things on the list, though I can see some slight humor in it.

 

[mikeyandscoobyx2]

LOL - getting a video game cartridge to work! I remember that

We still do that in my house!

Super Nintendo is a CLASSIC!

 

[Inigo]

1) Writing in cursive

I use cursive daily. I interview clients frequently, and write down their answers to put into report form. Printing would take too long and typing it as we speak would be too intrusive. It's not the proper penmanship cursive I learned in school and is more scribbly, but I can read it.

2) Phone numbers

I make a lot of phone calls from my desk phone and from my home phone, neither of which has speed dial. I know their numbers. It comes in handy when I'm out and need to call the police, since I have their numbers memorized. (I'm a probation officer, so I speak to the police frequently.)

3) Coloring

It's relaxing! Seriously, there are times it helps kids talk since it gives them something to do while talking. And I like doing crafty things. I may not be very good, but it's fun. And my art is every bit as good as that in the Modern Art gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago that I looked at last weekend.

4) Spelling words correctly

I was in the county finals for the spelling bee when I was in the 4th grade. I take pride in my spelling, and hate to see corrections suggested by spell check. It means I made a mistake! (yes, there are probably mistakes in this.)

5) Riding a bike

Still fun at age 44, and I'm not a greenie or exercise fanatic.

6) Public Library

The library is the door to the world! I borrow books, music, movies, etc. I love the place still.

7) Wrestling

I'll agree with this one.

8) Reading a map

I love maps. My GPS is nice to go to a set destination, but I like to explore. A map gives me opportunities to find extra things to do.

9) Video game fixes

I'll agree.

10) Respecting teachers

This is just sad that someone felt it should be on the list. The majority of teachers I know are teachers because of their love of teaching and the subject area. There are a few bad applies, but most are enthusiastic.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I don't agree with most of those!

 

[eduk8r26]

The only one I probably agree with is learning cursive. They've decided in some schools it's not necessary to learn it, except maybe in signing your name. And as a teacher, I certainly don't agree with the last one. My daughter and I jumped all over her son because he told his assistant soccer coach "you're not my father" when he told him to do something. You may not agree with someone, but you do need to respect a person of authority--in most cases.

 

[paintnolish]

Cursive is pointless. Not many people write as they learned-it is more a combo of printing/cursive for most people and still readable!

 

[NMAmy]

The library one is not true. I'm glad I live in an area where my local library parking lot is full every time I go there. Thank heavens, people do still read books.

 

[disykat]

I do all those things as an adult except wrestling. My dh did wrestle with our kids though so he has used all of them as an adult.

 

[Northstar]

Well, I sort of agree with many of them, but if you think about it, some of the things he's talking about aren't so much skills supplanted by technology (like reading a map and cursive writing) as skills related to activities and situations he no longer engages in (like riding a bike and going to the library). I think there are still lots of people who ride their bikes for fun and enjoy going to the library, so they don't find the skills and knowledge related to those activities useless at all.

I have two to add:

Useless childhood skills

1. I was in the very last class at my junior high school that was required to learn how to use a slide rule. The next year, they gave up and admitted that cheap, fast, portable calculators had turned slide rules into museum pieces.

2. I achieved fame and popularity as a child through my talent for burping on demand. Somehow I haven't been able to find a proper outlet for this skill in adult social life...

 

[MM27]

could care less about your education

Guess the author of this blog should've paid more attention to those teachers.

 

[PollyannaMom]

The only one I probably agree with is learning cursive. They've decided in some schools it's not necessary to learn it, except maybe in signing your name....

This actually came up in one of those kids news magazines that they pass out in classes. (I was covering for a 3rd or 4th grade that day.) Anyway, in the lesson plan for the magazine the students had to vote on whether they thought cursive should be taught, and my group actually voted to keep it! - and one of the most interesting reasons they picked was so that they could read old documents. I was really surprised.

 

[jlima]

The library one is not true. I'm glad I live in an area where my local library parking lot is full every time I go there. Thank heavens, people do still read books.

Yep!

We use the public library a lot. DH gets CDs & movies; and the kids get books all the time.

 

[BabyPiglet]

I agree with the cursive and nintendo games (I remember those dinosaur gray cartridges!), but the other ones are still important. Like going to the library, respecting teachers, and learning how to spell.

I do not ever use 'proper cursive', and at most my handwriting can be a mash of cursive and print when I'm writing quickly.

 

[HamTown]

After fighting with our GPS to give us an alternate route when I-95 became a parking lot one afternoon, we've learned to ALWAYS keep a map in the car. I l would have loved to be able to read the map and find a "scenic route" home.

The cursive instruction my son is getting is laughable. Of course, he really wasn't ever taught to print correctly either.