Skills that are dying out: Here goes: Using a slide rule,

[raccoon]

shorthand, cursive writing (this is just starting to happen), driving a straight shift car.

Your turn?

[texanwitch]

1. Not learning to write cursive is so strange.

How will they write their name, just print it?

If they can't write cursive they can't read it either.

There are times you still need to write.

[raccoon]

2. There was an thread in GD recently about some states not teaching it any more.

Or not requiring it to be taught.

Someone said in there, they could just print their name. I agree, doesn't seem quite kosher to me either.

[LynneSin]

4. It seems weird because we were taught that way; however...

I think there are better things we could be teaching our children.

[texanwitch]

6. My printing isn't that great, my cursive is prefect.

I always had teachers that wanted neatly written papers or they wouldn't read them.

In the last few years dealing with my parents I had to sign a lot of papers.

The papers needed both printed and signature names.

A printed A and a cursive written A look so different.

If I had a kid, she or he would learn cursive at home.

Looks like a lot of older people will have a much needed job skill.

[Saving Hawaii]

16. and my cursive is completely unreadable

my printed text is neat though.

[Saving Hawaii]

15. If nobody knows it, it won't be needed anymore

If a large portion of the populace doesn't know how to write in cursive, businesses will stop requiring that their customers and employees be able to write in cursive. It's only a needed skill right now because everybody knows it. If large portions of the population don't, it won't be a needed skill anymore.

If you absolutely need cursive for your signature it's not hard at all to Google "how do I write my name in cursive" and just learn those specific letters. You can also visit a library and ask the librarians to show you how. You don't even need to learn all the letters and how they go together or how cursive works. All you really need to know is how to scribble your name in cursive. That's pretty easy.

We spend a lot of time teaching kids a completely worthless skill. It's good that we're moving away from that.

[texanwitch]

21. Cursive is easier to write then printing.

To bad no one will able to read old family letters anymore.

I have love letters from my Grandparents when Grandpa was in WWI, I can read them.

In the future a computer program will have to read it for you.

[madinmaryland]

127. Not when you write "text-speak" as most kids do today. Cursive text speak

would be completely incomprehensible!!

:P

[NewJeffCT]

194. My daughter started cursive in 3rd grade, is continuing it in 4th now

but, when she goes to 5th grade, any written homework needs to be done on a computer, so it will be only done rarely after that.

[LynneSin]

3. There are no times whatsoever that you are required to use a cursive signature

I know cursive but my signature is mostly printed and some scribble lines. I have written checks and bought a house with that signature and no one batted an eye.

[Saving Hawaii]

17. my signature is basically a J-scribble N-scribble with a slashthrough.

FWIW, if you want to your signature can be as simple as "X". Nice printed "X". Lot of illiterate people have used that actually. Legally valid signature.

[Chan790]

27. The bank when I worked there refused to accept "X".

You could make a line or draw a picture or scribble. X however we had to ask them to re-sign.

I had one guy who being told exactly that drew a penis next to his X and that was accepted. It went on his sig-card too so every check he ever wrote after that had to have a penis on it.

[KamaAina]

30. What a dick!!

:rofl:

[Kennah]

148. You drew a penis on my credit card machine.

http://www.digitalgangster.com/4um/showthread.php?80733-Manager-You-drew-a-penis-on-my-credit-card-machine.&s=1de59fd23d590f580510fb75381baeee

[Rhythm]

76. Hi "J-scribble N-scribble with a slashthrough"... I'm "D-squiggle L-swirl-dot"!

Nice to meet you!

[Chan790]

10. I never thought anythjing I learned was as idiotic as cursive.

I applaud this movement to kill pretty useless handwriting fonts...they made me learn to write in italics at the same time.

I think of all the things they could have taught us instead...like ASL or Spanish.

[Saving Hawaii]

18. they made you learn to write in italics!?!?

jesus krishna... what a stupid waste of classroom time. just make the kid sit in the corner with a comic book. they'll learn more valuable and useful skills than learning to write in italics.

[Chan790]

25. Yes, so we could write references to other texts properly.

Literally it was so we'd be able make proper citations back to the novel while handwriting open-novel prompts on Where The Red Fern Growa by Wilson Rawls on a test in 5th grade.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

50. What's wrong with cursive and what's so hard about it? Yeesh!

Cursive is MUCH easier to write than printing. Printing cramps your hands quickly, while you can keep going a lot longer with cursive.

It's not rocket science. When I was a kid, all of us were eager to learn it because it unlocked the secrets of grown-ups' handwriting. We got a little introduction in second grade and then spent about 10 minutes a day on it in third grade. Printing was for babies--and for first graders and second graders, same thing, as far as we were concerned.

As one grows older, one's cursive matures. My handwriting from third grade doesn't look a bit like my handwriting from twelfth grade.

[texanwitch]

51. Same here.

We couldn't wait until we could learn cursive.

Printing was for babies.

I also think cursive impoved the motor skills of young kids.

I know when I write a a letter I think different from when I type on the keyboard.

No one will print a letter, letter writing will disappear.

[raccoon]

99. Same here! I'll never forget the first time I wrote an entire page in cursive,

andIwroteitalllikethis.

I didn't know to space between the words, LOL.

We learned our signatures in cursive in late 2nd grade, then got into extensive cursive in 3rd.

[BrendaBrick]

142. "I know when I write a a letter...

I think different from when I type on the keyboard."

I think there is something to that. Though I can't recall any names right off the top of my head, I am amazed to find out that some very popular authors actually prefer to write longhand. Might in fact have something to do with thinking differently, as you mention.

I still send old-fashioned letters from time to time. Cursive and scented. I think its nice and something I hope never goes by the wayside!

Interesting, this whole cursive issue reminds me of the Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement speech - 2005 that was floating around last week and how he said what an impact a certain Calligraphy course he had taken (and the pure elegance of it) helped to shape his approach to computing.

[kentauros]

65. I prefer printing.

Partly because I had to relearn it for hand-drafting a few decades ago. Those styles of printing are different than what grade-schoolers learn because it has to be precise. You don't get a cramp doing it because it is created slowly :)

I've forgotten all of my cursive other than my signature, and it's no big deal, even at age fifty. However, if I want something pretty, I'll take even more time and do it in calligraphy ;)

[Odin2005]

85. I learned curseive in 3rd Grade (1994), but hate using it because...

I have poor eye-hand coordination and my cursive looks really sloppy. I also find it to hard to read, probably because everything I read is normal print in books and on computer screens and so I never had any practice reading cursive in everyday life, back in the day people would read letters written in cursive.


The only thing I ever write in cursive is my name.

[hunter]

164. Got to be an autistic thing...

Reading and writing cursive is torture for me. My handwriting, either block or cursive, is atrocious chicken-scratching despite the sadistic efforts of my grammar school teachers. In college I'd use multiple blue-books for exams because I can't write both small and fast. If I tried to keep my writing a normal size I couldn't finish the exam. I have a lot of trouble writing and paying attention to the lines, so I don't pay much attention to the lines.

My world got a lot brighter when I learned to type. I can type as fast as I find the words in my head.

[Odin2005]

168. Yes, I much prefer typing to writing!

[Lionel Mandrake]

181. I was disappointed in first grade.

Mrs. Watts had said the day before that we were going to learn writing. When the time came, it was only printing, which I had already learned at home. I would have to wait ANOTHER TWO YEARS to learn real (i.e., cursive) handwriting.

What a letdown!

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Baking from scratch, sewing your own clothes,

and, I fear, reading comprehension and literacy.

[GoCubsGo]

42. Which begs the question...

How are people going be able to follow the directions on the box of cake mix if they comprehend what they're reading--IF they can read?

[Arkansas Granny]

7. Canning food.

[Denninmi]

28. Au Contraire

Canning has been on an upsurge the past few year.

I usually do a couple hundred quarts of tomato products most year, plus some other stuff. I had a lazy year this year, maybe about 200 jars total, half tomatoes.

[hunter]

8. "Tuning up" a car with a non-electronic ignition.

When's the last time anyone bought new points and a distributor cap, or adjusted their car's timing?

Nowadays you have to muck about with computers, and it's against the law to drive such a modified car on public roads.

[Mopar151]

134. Last year, on the points

(They cost $25 a set now, and it's a dual-point...) - And I have a Sun distributor machine in the shop.....

[oneshooter]

136. I have a 1951 M38a1 Jeep. Took me 3 years to do a frame up restore

Yea, I know points, gaps and dwell.

[bluedigger]

195. Sweet.

Pics please!:hi:

[yankeepants]

9. spllng n grmmr n/t

[Xithras]

11. Electronics repair.

One of my grandfathers ran a TV and radio repair shop. I used to make quite a bit of money doing computer repairs and upgrades on the side. Both are dead and dying trades as electronics become disposable.

[Tom Ripley]

97. That is the first thing that came to my mind

My friends all think that I am some kind of wizard
because I can solder

[Frank Cannon]

185. Along the same lines, amateur radio and Morse code.

Back when ham radio was the ONLY way to talk to someone halfway around the world for free, a lot of people had electronics skills. Now, sadly, it's a vanishing hobby.

[Ikonoklast]

190. Got into a discussion with a ticket holder over Morse not being required anymore.

He said that if there is a planet-wide EMP pulse that knocked out all modern radio and telephony in the world, Morse would still be able to be used to send and receive information, and, boy, will we be sorry when no one knows how to send Morse Code anymore!

I replied that if there was an EMP pulse hitting the Earth big enough to be planet-wide it would also include enough energy to kill every living thing on the planet to begin with.

[Frank Cannon]

192. Morse is quite useful, and it's a shame it's not required anymore.

I have an "Extra Lite" ticket (passing the test without having to do the code at 20 wpm), but I still practiced the code just because I believe it is a useful skill that SOMEONE needs to know. Although I agree with you about the EMP, your friend is right: when just about every mode of communications has failed, you can still get a message out with Morse code, whether it's transmitted on some homebrewed CW transceiver or just banging on pipes if you are trapped in a collapsed building.

[Chan790]

12. So many of these things are "Good Riddance" items to me.

Canning, cursive, jam-making, embroidery...these are not useful skills for modern life. They're hobbies. They're the dreck they taught us in elementary school when our minds were open to knowledge.

Using a slide-rule is one of those useless skills that is no longer taught because it's no longer useful...like using an abacus or how to ignite a crank-start car.

Sewing is useful and so is cooking...but neither belongs in a school curriculum.

[raccoon]

13. The skill doesn't have to be in a school curriculum. nt

[texanwitch]

14. I think this will be a big mistake, like new math.

I remember how proud I was when I could write my name and not print it.

I think cursive will be a job skill looked for in the future.

I don't mean far future.

I wonder if private schools are doing this also, or just public schools.

[Chan790]

26. I think it's pretty much national and universal.

I don't think it's a skill that anybody will be seeking out ever however.

It's pointless. Truly a pointless skill. It serves no purpose, it didn't even serve one anymore when I learned it in 1985.

[texanwitch]

31. Typewriters have been around for a long time but people still wrote by hand.

I really don't understand how learning to write a clear written letter or anything in cursive is outdated.

There are just somethings that are good to know.

I am not trying to start a fight but damn I am glad I can write a letter if necessary without a computer.

And read a letter.

I have big box of letters from my Grandfather to my Grandmother, it is history.

It would be sad if I couldn't read them.

To me being a adult means knowing how to read and write on my own.

There will be a need for people who can read and write cursive.

Old documents are not going away.

[Chan790]

39. I do difagree.

I think of curfive the same vvay I think about the factf that my anceftorf in 1650f Nevv Eng1and vvrote 1ike thif. It'f archaick and of no funcktion. Fure there if fome need for there to be people vvho can read it* but it'f entire1y a spesia1ift ski11 outfide of common practife or ufe to moft Americanf.

(Sorry to be a snot but this entirely makes my point.)

*-namely archeologists and historians specializing in colonial America.

Hint:
***"c"s usually abridge into their phoneme unless at the beginning of the word...either k or s...or supplement that phoneme as in "ck". Exceptions to "ch" which remains "ch" but should be understood as a singular letter rather than a digraph.
***"f" is "s" but also "f".
***"w" is "vv"...many of the double-v's you see in modern English are mis-transliterations and in the original colonial English and archaic British English were "w". For example, "savvy" being "sawy" or "sharp".
***For reasons initiating in the early printing era, lowercase "l" was typically written and typed as the numeral "1". This practice persisted until after the Civil War...most of the rest of these died-out by 1800.

[texanwitch]

43. So we should loose history because of this.

When people can't write a letter on their own, not printing but writing without a computer we are in trouble.

I can read my Grandfather's letters just fine and they were wrote in the years 1917, 1918 and 1920.

The handwriting style seems the same, I think it was as called the Palmer method.

History will be whatever the people who can read will make it.

To me reading and writing goes together.

My Grandmother told me there are just things you need to know even if you never need to use it.

I couldn't understand that at the time because I was to young.

I still write letters, along with emails.

One thing doesn't replace another.

The reading level is going down as it is.

In 20 years America will be a country of people who can't read, write or spell.

Forget the math.

I like my computer but I still like writing letters.

[ElboRuum]

63. I'd just be happy if we'd go back to writing 'lose' when appropriate.

Just saying.

[Odin2005]

88. "In 20 years America will be a country of people who can't read, write or spell." LOL

That what is said in every generation, it's simply not true.

[quakerboy]

169. I half agree

It is true that it is inaccurate to say that in 20 years we will be a country that cant read, write, or spell.

Though technically I think it is true, mainly because we are already there.

At my previous job, I found that a surprising number of college graduates couldn't write to save their lives (or more accurately, their jobs). We are not talking about style or technical issues, we are talking about putting basic concepts down in text. Supposedly certified educated persons.

There are those who can. But I do not believe the official literacy levels are accurate. To some extent its a matter of change, where some people can communicate via tex speak quite adeptly, but could not write an essay in standard english. But I think a large amount of it is a lack of critical thinking and communication ability. I cant speak to how things were before I lived in this country, but that seems to be the status quo among Americans today, slightly moreso among the younger set.

[ElboRuum]

62. Why are you typing with your mouth full?

Poor manners.

[Odin2005]

87. I would assume there will be professional calligraphers who...

will learn it and there will be plenty of people who will learn it as a hobby. It doesn't need to be a requirement, IMO

[sakabatou]

90. There is home-ec as an elective

[nadine_mn]

92. But where else would you learn it?

My mom never cooked or sewed, thank goodness for my grandma and home ec. Sorry - but some of these are skills we need today. I have know way too many people that when we got to college could not fend for themselves - couldn't cook, clean, make simple mendings on clothes.

[gratuitous]

19. Converting Flemish ells to English ells

The world has certainly gone to shit since we quit teaching our children these vital dry measure conversions!

[Orrex]

130. oo the ell cares?

[RedCloud]

20. Good manners.

[texanwitch]

24. Yep.

Please and thank you.

[Swede]

22. Remembering phone numbers

Math

[texanwitch]

23. Cell phones.

I know maybe 5 phone numbers now.

Cell phones make for lazy minds.

[GoCubsGo]

41. I always have to refer to a my address book.

The only phone numbers I have committed to memory are my landline and my parents' landline. I don't even know my own cell phone number. (It's a Net10 non-contract job that I only have for emergencies. I have only given the number out to my parents and younger sister.)

[ElboRuum]

64. I don't know...

Seems to me that you want to call someone, not the number that represents the someone. We remembered numbers because we had no alternative, not because it was particularly the most efficient method of telling the telephone system who should be the recipient of your phone call.

[ohiosmith]

29. Things I learned in school including: type setting, metal fabrication, and woodworking.

:hi:

[GoCubsGo]

44. Woodworking? No way!

I can't tell you how many people, mostly men, that I know whose favorite hobby is woodworking. Hell, they've got at least two or three shows on PBS that are dedicated to the subject. They wouldn't invest their limited funds in such a thing if there wasn't a substantial audience for them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. I can do all of those things except shorthand.

I can also do math with a pencil and paper, time a magneto and adjust a carburetor.

[ohiosmith]

33. Can you bake a cherry pie?

:hide:

[texanwitch]

34. I can make pies.

The crust is the most important thing.

I like a good homemade apple pie.

[ohiosmith]

35. I love pie.

Usually!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

37. Yes. From scratch. Using cherries I picked myself.

[ohiosmith]

38. Yum!

:9

[Chan790]

40. It's a good thing you're not making an apple pie then.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. -Carl Sagan

The truth of it really is astounding logic.

[oneshooter]

137. And a pecan Pie, and a Sweet Potato Pie.

[Hotler]

36. Understanding the concept of

straight, square, plumb and level.

[Capn Sunshine]

178. Those are mostly theoretical

every time I remodel a house I discover that.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

45. Touch typing.

I learned back in high school. It was very useful.
I took an IBM typewriter with me to college. My roommates were horrified when Dad came in with a forty-pound steel typewriter.

I was a serious student! Horrors!! I would be typing my own papers and other peoples' papers too!!!

:wtf:


I still don't know if kids learn to cook or sew nowadays.

I would add, learning to play a musical instrument instead of Guitar Hero.

[Spider Jerusalem]

47. People still learn touch typing

just not on a typewriter.

[Skittles]

48. I don't see a lot of them

the younger folk I work with type fast (usually with four fingers), but it's not touch-typing

[RebelOne]

49. Even if you type on a computer, you still need to know touch typing.

That is, unless you want to look at the keyboard and type letter by letter.

[Odin2005]

89. I tried to learn touch-typing in high school, but I failed miserably.

It's just physically impossible for me, I have very bad coordination. I can "hunt-and-peck" type at a respectable speed though.

[Liberal Veteran]

52. The only bad thing about touch typing is that is that I hit keys on keyboards hard.

I learned my typing on a manual typewriter and while I never stopped using those skills, I am kind of noisy.

[JoeyT]

94. I have a noise problem too.

Before I was allowed to touch a computer my mom forced me to learn to touch type on a manual typewriter. The early 60s typewriter she learned to type on, which probably hadn't been oiled in two decades. The result was that I can type very fast, but I sound like rain on a tin roof and I go through a keyboard every two months or so because you can only beat a spacebar so hard for so long before it surrenders.

[raccoon]

100. Be careful--you might end up with RSI. BTDT. nt

[trackfan]

156. I probably never had a career as a result of not learning to type,

despite the pleas of my mother. A college degree, without typing, was pretty much useless. I tried for year, and failed to make much progress on my own. At about the age of 30, I even bought a typewriter, and practiced a lot, and got marginally better, but still not fast. Once I started using a computer, I picked up typing, without trying, to the point where I could challenge even the best executive secretaries of the days of old in my speed of typing off copy.

[Spider Jerusalem]

46. 90% of the cars sold here in the UK have manual gearboxes.

Same thing in France, and Germany, and the rest of Europe generally. Hardly "dying out".

[kwassa]

81. Really? About 7% of new cars in the US have manual transmissions, including European imports.

[Major Nikon]

104. It's hard to rent a car in Europe that's automatic

[Major Nikon]

105. Dupe

nt

[raccoon]

101. Yall Europeans are weird, then. LOL. nt

[dimbear]

53. Chipping flint arrowheads and scrapers.

Alas, Babylon.

[Tom Ripley]

98. I really did laugh out loud

[TheCentepedeShoes]

133. Good book n/t

[bluedigger]

196. I'm with you!

Scoff all you want, the basics are timeless.

And stone tools last FOREVER!

[Coyote_Bandit]

197. It's called flintknapping

and there is a local group here that promotes the skill. And they are not affiliated with any of the Native American tribes.

[jellen]

54. Hand writing a personal letter/via snail mail n/t

[virgogal]

55. Darning socks.

[Arugula Latte]

56. Yeah. Screw socks w/ holes. I throw 'em out.

Those socks think I'm going to spend my precious time stitching them up over a wooden egg thing, they've got another thing coming.

:P

[Arugula Latte]

57. Long division by hand?

My kids were barely taught that. I mean, in reality, calculators make it obsolete. I'm reviewing it w/ my daughter, though, because I think it's worthwhile to understand.

[Arugula Latte]

58. Also: Saving things to a "floppy" disc.

[Brigid]

59. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Also, writing a coherent paragraph around a main idea and reading comprehension. I swear I don't know what goes on in English classes these days.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

72. everything is geared toward standardized testing, so no one knows how to write

unless they go to a college. IN college they only learn this if they picked a college with a small professor/student ratio and a teaching college not a university. it's all very sad.

[RebelOne]

119. I am appalled at the poor grammar, punctuation and spelling

nowadays on Web sites, TV and news Web sites. Makes me want to scream. I was a copy editor for 35 magazines before I was laid off in 2010, and I am highly sensitive to all those grammatical errors. That is why sometimes I am a grammar Nazi at DU. I can't help myself. It just comes naturally.

[Kennah]

149. I have a thing for Grammar Girl

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

[Bake]

60. Shepardizing cases using the paper books in the law library ...

OK, that's a little obscure, but hey. This is what WestLaw and LEXIS are for.

:hi:

Bake, Esq.

[Flaxbee]

77. Flaxbee, Esq. hated doing that

:)

:hi:

One of many reasons I no longer practice law (though I do keep my two state admissions current).

[nadine_mn]

91. When I was in law school we had to learn how to do it both ways

with Westlaw and the "old-fashioned" way

Up there with using a card catalog

[Yavin4]

121. I Use To Do That When I Was A Paralegal

Man, that was some tedious work.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

61. Making bows and arrows, spears, slings

Real hunting and butchering
foraging for food
making fire
Talking to animals

[Withywindle]

83. These are useful skills.

It makes me sad that I'm just a couple generations removed from people who knew how to make their own soap, build their own furniture, sew their own clothes, do all sorts of things involving agriculture and livestock, preserve their own food without freezers, tell time and directions by sun and stars...and I'm pretty clueless about all of it.

I think there will be a time when many of us will need to know these things again. I love our technology, but it scares me how hard it would be for most of us to survive if it went away.

[BrendaBrick]

143. "The Household Cyclopedia"

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/contents.html (Downloadable)

I have a small collection of these types of books. Really interesting!

[oneshooter]

173. Try the Foxfire series. Kinda hard to find, but great reading !

[texanwitch]

180. That is what scares me to.

I like my new toys as much as anyone.

it is still nice to know how to do things for myself.

When Hurricane Ike knocked out the power it was funny watching people freak out.

The older people just went on, the younger people just couldn't stand it.

My Grandparents lived on a farm with no power except wind for the windmill until the middle 40's.

They had a battery powered radio and gas lamps.

I still have one of the lamps.

I could make it if necessary.

[dixiegrrrrl]

191. Guess what...I can do most of those things,

and Mr. Dixie can do the rest.Push comes to shove, we can make most of what we need, one way or the other,
and in the past I have lived off the grid, using my own well water, wood stove to cook on, garden, etc.
Only needed to buy flour, sugar, a few other staples.
Very labor intensive, takes a LOT of muscles and energy.

[Bake]

95. Hey, Goat! How you doin'?

Say hello to your mother for me.

See? People still talk to animals!

:hi:

Bake

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

131. Goat: Maaaaaaa Waaaaas Laaaaasst Weeeeeeks Diiiiinnnneeeeer

[oneshooter]

138. Butcher and smoke my own meat, can live with out elect. forage for food

Make fire with bow, flint or percussion tube.

Don't do the last, unless you are talking to turkeys, squirrels, ducks or geese.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

154. I've had some of my best conversations with wolves and foxes

late at night while tending the campfire while everyone else was asleep.

Did it with coyotes too, but they were usually too interested in what kinds of food I might have for them.

[Duer 157099]

66. Raise your hand if you attend work meetings where white (or black) boards are used

If so, do people generally write in cursive or print?

My experience is that almost everybody uses cursive.

So when people think they needn't learn cursive because everybody can type everything, remember that even still, in workplaces, people have daily/weekly meetings where people still write on walls to communicate.

Just sayin.

[Chan790]

69. Yes.

And solely print. I've not encountered cursive outside of wedding invitations and signatures in about 15 years.

[quakerboy]

170. Raised

Or at least we did at my last job. During the week it was used for general announcements. During meetings, for content.

Print. Exclusively. for both announcements and meetings. This from both our management (and notes added by employyes) during the week, and from from a wide range of professionals brought in to teach us on various topics.

[kentauros]

67. ANY driving skill.

Most everyone drives as if they are truly afraid to be there or 100% unaware they are driving at all. Those of us that still have some driving skills have to be ever vigilant for the rest that don't seem to care about anything, much less their own lives.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

123. ROFL!! You got it! Life in Houston is dangerous.

I flunked my driving test when I was 16, and I knew if I drove in Houston I would get killed. I realized I was not able to pay enough attention to the traffic yet.

So I went off to college at 17, and lived in dorms and eventually, when i moved back home and had to drive to Community College, I got my license at the ripe old age of 21.

I think it saved my life, frankly.

[GoCubsGo]

174. I was about to add "following the rules of the road"

Just in my own neighborhood, they fly down the residential streets at 50 mph. Screw the kids on the bikes. I'm surprised one of them hasn't bet hit. If I had a buck for every time someone blew off the stop sign at the corner, I could easily buy a high-end 45" flat screen TV after three months. And, don't get me started on the idiots who don't know what the hell a "yield" sign means.

[BiggJawn]

68. Straight shift cars?

Um, I don't think so. They've made great strides in automatic gearboxes, but the "purists" still want to stir their own gears.
Been checking out light pickups recently and the Big Three (and Dodge) all offer 5-speed manuals.

[nolabear]

151. ALL my cars have been sticks. My husband's and sons' cars too.

It's just fun. And I love the control.

[Frank Cannon]

193. I still prefer to seek out and drive sticks.

Like you said, they offer better control and are just more fun to drive. I also tend to think they are less expensive and less prone to very expensive and frustrating repairs.

[valerief]

70. Darning. Not saying it. Sewing it. nt

[progressoid]

118. I was just thinking about that the other day.

When I was a kid I always had a pair of socks that had been "darned". Not anymore.

[valerief]

71. Using rotary phones. nt

[valerief]

73. Building home fallout shelters. nt

[valerief]

74. Sending a telegram. nt

[styersc]

75. Knapping stone tools.

Hah. I can!!!!

[oneshooter]

139. Mine don't look so pretty, but they work. n/t

[Ilsa]

78. Crocheting doilies using fine thread. Tatting.

I can crochet and sew. Can't knit,though.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

79. Running a ditto machine, keypunching, making corrections on an IBM Selectric

making popcorn on the stove top, making candy, making chocolate pudding from a powdered mix, setting one's hair on rollers, setting up and running a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

[raccoon]

102. Or setting up and running a slide projector (not Power Point!) Big PITA. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

108. And changing a typewriter ribbon

which was one of my least favorite jobs, due to the inevitability of getting ink on one's hands.

[BrendaBrick]

144. Ditto machine

ha ha ha...I haven't heard that term in YEARS!!! I remember in elementary school, the print was purplish, the paper kind of cool/cold and I loved the smell! Do you remember that?

(Still pop the popcorn in a skillet though. Cheaper and use olive oil).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

147. Why yes, sniffing the bubble gum smell of the ditto ink as the

worksheets were passed down the row was a favorite grade school ritual. :-)

[texanwitch]

152. I can still smell the sheets, never forget that smell.

Every day the mean teachers made us work a sheet of math problems.

That is how we learn the times tables, every day.

I thank the teachers now.

[SOteric]

80. Making bathtub gin in an unused shed behind the barn.

.

[Major Nikon]

112. Why make it when you can buy it?

[kwassa]

82. Dialing a rotary phone, listening on a party line! Putting a ribbon in a typewriter ...

using White-Out.

Developing photographic film in a darkroom.

Replacing an incandescent light bulb.

[RebelOne]

120. I remember doing all that, except developing film. n/t

[Incitatus]

84. I am equally skilled in all three of those.

}(

[Odin2005]

86. Txt-spk is the new shorthand.

[raccoon]

103. good point, there. nt

[Odin2005]

107. I like mentioning it whenever somebody goes "kids can't spell these days".

as if using shorthand for texting makes us illiterate. :eyes:

("texting" isn't recognized by spell-check, LOL)

[krispos42]

146. right-click, add to dictionary

*bam*

Now it is!

[texanwitch]

93. I found this interesting article on the importance of cursive.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html

Maybe teachers a long time ago knew something.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

109. That is certainly true for learning Chinese/Japanese characters!

My students tended to use flashcards and ignored my advice to write the characters over and over with the correct stroke order in as many contexts as possible and to copy out pages of text.

The students who depended entirely on flashcards tended to leave out parts of the kanji when they tried to write them.

[geardaddy]

122. How else would you be able to look things up in the dictionary

without knowing the stroke order. :)

[BrendaBrick]

145. Good article.

[HopeHoops]

96. Putting a blade on a band saw and aligning it correctly without losing multiple body parts.

[Major Nikon]

106. Packing a pipe with Prince Albert or Captain Black

And no, I don't mean from the left handed can.

[oneshooter]

140. Making a clay or corncob pipe.

[Major Nikon]

163. Some folks even make their own briar pipes

I'm not that hard core, but my latest briar was made by a friend who did a great job on it. It's my favorite pipe.

[kiva]

110. Reading a map.

RESEARCH has revealed that 67% of under 25s don't know how to read a map and are more reliant on satellite navigation.

The majority of the under 25s, 83%, said that they had a GPS in their car - whilst only 24% revealed that they had a map. When asked whether it was important to be able to read a map, 74% said that it wasn't.

Putting complete trust into the Sat Nav, 49% said they had gotten lost on a journey. To tackle this 51% said they would ring one of their parents and 32% would ask a passerby for directions. However, only 17% admitted that this made them learn how to read a map, just in case it happened again.

Read more: http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-bizarre/young-adults-cant-read-maps/18507.html#ixzz1ag3aldm4

[Odin2005]

113. I'm 25 and I swear that I'm the only one of my peers that ca understand the city bus route map.

[kiva]

157. A good point - if someone can't understand a street map,

they would also have trouble with a bus or subway route map too.

[geardaddy]

124. Yep.

[LeftyMom]

111. Well, complaining about Kids These Days clearly isn't a dying art.

As usual, it seems to be the hobby of people who don't know many Kids These Days.

[Odin2005]

114. +1,000,000,000,000,000,000

[LeftyMom]

115. I guess somebody should tell them that half the stuff they've listed is popular with young people.

Handicrafts, canning, old typewriters? Trendy, trendy, trendy.

[Posteritatis]

159. Indeed.

"Things aren't as they were according to my preconceptions of how they currently are! That means they must be worse!"

[Taverner]

116. Driving a car with a Manual Transmission

[Rob H.]

188. Too true

I'm one of the few people in my circle of friends who knows how to drive stick. I read not long ago that around 20% of US drivers can drive a car with a manual transmission and fewer than 10% of drivers actually own a car with a manual.

I was checking out new cars earlier this year and, depending on the manufacturer, the only way to get a car with a stick shift was to buy the stripped-down base model or the super-high-end loaded model. There are very few cars out there offered with both manuals and automatics available on every trim level.

[BlueIris]

117. Quilting. Calligraphy.

I can do one of those two things.

[Neoma]

126. A lot of people quilt...

Mostly, it's deemed something you do when you retire.

[Neoma]

125. Morse Code, Short Hand, Newspapers, Encyclopedias...

And lets face it, no one's learning second languages anymore.

[oneshooter]

141. Morse code was dropped by the military 10-12 years ago. n/t

[zanana1]

162. I disagree about second languages...

They're learning Mandarin!

[Major Nikon]

187. 2nd languages seem to be more popular in America than when I was a kid

My son knows French and Hebrew, and he's studied a bit of Arabic. My daughter is coming along with her French and isn't too bad this year.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

128. even some "high tech" skills have already died out

-When was the last time you set the COM port and IRQ on a PC to make a modem work?
-Did you ever use a chip puller, before there were ZIF sockets, and the like?

To answer your question in the more standard way, I'd say that long-form reading is going by the wayside, and that's a little alarming.

[IDemo]

186. I did those things back in the 90's

And still set COM port and baud-rate on terminal programs for test PC's. Even ZIF sockets have largely given way to BGA components, which require a convection rework station for removal and replacement.

[MorningGlow]

129. My kid would be ecstatic if his school did away with cursive n/t

[Mopar151]

132. Manual machinist, old school mechanic

'Specially unit/component repair - like starters, alternators, carbs - and repair work like Heli-coils, bushings, welding in sections and re-machining.......

[hunter]

166. Sadly true.

Modern car repair people simply replace parts. They are not old school mechanics.

My mechanic works on antique cars so he's often rebuilding things.

I knew he was the mechanic for me when I went to get something repaired and he said, "Well, I can put a new one in for about $350 parts and labor, or you can fix it yourself with JB Weld, which ought to work just as well..." And it did.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

135. I became acquainted with

the slide rule for high school chemistry class in junior year, 1964-1965
I do not mean I mastered it, or we became especially friendly, just that it did not become broken
Cursive writing was formally taught in third grade at my Kansas elementary school, but if we already knew how, we could sign our names to our papers in second grade
Knowledge of some type of shorthand can be good for anyone
I have some
Oh dear, the stick shift question
No I cannot drive stick
The whole stick, brake, clutch runs past me and into the intersection
From which I would become dead

[texanwitch]

150. True story, kids at work can't tell time without a digital device.

A regular wall clock is a mystery to them, forget military time.

I had have classes on how to read the clock so the information was correct.

These are high school kids or older.

I could tell time when I was 5 years old, even had a watch.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

153. manners.

[Rowdyboy]

155. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

My favorite post of the day

[oneshooter]

175. When I hold a door for a lady I always apologies.

"I'm sorry, my daddy raised me as a male chauvinist pig and I can't git over it."
Funny thing is they useally laugh. Then I inform them that I raised my three sons the same way.

[guitar man]

158. Gas welding (oxyacetylene)

A while back I was welding up a new muffler and tailpipe and my nephew was watching in fascination. He'd never seen anybody weld with a gas rig before , it's all mig and tig now I guess.

[6000eliot]

160. Writing a coherent sentence.

I say this as a college writing teacher.

[Orrex]

171. Sadly, that problem is hardly new...

I used to proofread extensively for friends decades ago, and a lack of coherent sentences.was much on evidence even then.

In axdition, I suspect that the problem began earlier still...

[zanana1]

161. Gregg shorthand!

I took two courses of it in high school. I used it in college for notes, so it actually was useful for something.

[Orrex]

165. Combing the seeds out of your pot on a vinyl album cover

A lost art, I tell you.

[Withywindle]

167. LOL!

I love it when I buy old LPs at a yard sale or something, and bits of 30-year-old pot fall out of the sleeve.

[WinkyDink]

172. Every one? Just a thought. No need to cook, to write, to iron, to mow (I hire), etc.

[A HERETIC I AM]

176. Well...it is a bit off the wall, but backing up a trailer onto a railcar......

and then continue backing for ten or twelve more rail cars.

In the days before methods to lift trailers onto "Piggy Back" rail cars were commonplace, the only way to get them up there was to back them up. A ramp was placed at the end of the train and yard jockeys would back the trailers up onto the train and have to back them up over several cars as they were loading the train.

As this practice has almost completely been superseded by traveling cranes that straddle both the rail car and a line of trailers as well as other mobile lifting machines, the drivers that had the skill needed to back up dead-nuts straight with virtually no room for error have fallen by the wayside. Now, I can back a truck up pretty straight for quite a long ways, but doing it up on one of these;


is a different story altogether.

BTW, Those rectangular flap looking things sticking up on the end of the car are decks that fold down to facilitate what I am talking about. These types of flatcars are very, VERY rare these days. Also, the other structure at the near end and the other in the middle of the car are 5th wheels that will lock onto the kingpin of the trailer. They were and are designed so that a screw jack will raise and lower them so that they will lay flat on the car, allowing a truck to be pulled over them.

There may still be some yards that use yard jockeys driving "Yard Mules" like this one;


to load trains, but those piggy back rail yards are few and far between, as far as I know. The Mule however, is very common.

[Bucky]

177. Hand cranking your Model A to life before driving the car out of the barn.

Rebalencing the body's humours by bleeding is also a woefully forgotten skillset.

[Kali]

179. in the US?

animal herding - the old style of moving and settling animals to rest or graze where you want them to

[Recovered Repug]

182. While perhaps not dying out, these may be on the

endangered species list:

Writing a check - Debit cards and computer bill paying makes it almost unnecessary.
Changing a cars oil - Especially for apartment dwellers like myself.
Tying shoes - I have 2 nephews (7 & 5 ). While I won't say that they don't know how to tie their shoes, I don't remember ever seeing them wear a pair of shoes that required tying.

[canoeist52]

183. That's why I'm hanging on to this book for future generations...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-Second-Environmentally/dp/0898156270/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318741912&sr=1-1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DjVvszmGL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[xmas74]

184. My child is in the sixth grade and

she's not expected to use cursive. They spent very little time learning it, compared to the days when I had actual "penmanship" classes.

She doesn't even have to sign her name. She has to write a series of numbers on her papers for the teacher to identify her instead. The numbers are what hour the class is held, what day the class is on, (she alternates days for her classes. I never did that until college), her grade and her student number in the grade. To me it would be much easier to write her name, the class, the hour, and the date but that's not what they want now.

[Nikia]

199. Is it to prevent grading bias?

I had one professor who made us write our student numbers instead of names for our paper and final, consisting of essays, so that he would not be biased based on the person who turned it in. I think that some teachers may have that problem, grading students who they like higher than those they don't like on things like papers and essays that don't have an exact answer.
I would think that with the number of assignments that the typical sixth grader has though, most teachers would start recognizing the numbers as the students.

[xmas74]

201. No.

The teacher knows exactly who the students are, since the number includes their initials in it.

Sometimes I wonder if, since this is a military town, they are preparing them to get used to identifying themselves by their SSN instead of their names.

[oneshooter]

189. Building a rail fence. I have done it and there is a lot of skills needed to do it right. n/t

[Ineeda]

200. Making change.

And it bamboozles cashiers if you give them coins!

[Coyote_Bandit]

198. Lots of creative skills

Stained glass construction and repair.

Glass casting.

Glass painting.

Master bench jeweler fine jeweler skills.

Metal fabrication and machine work.

Metal casting.

Blacksmithing.

Leatherwork (e.g. saddlemaking).

Weaving and looming to make textiles.



And if you happen to have these skills you can't find a damned job.