The Dumbest Generation

I'm leaning that it's a generational thing linkat.

In my mid 20's, (so this was in the early/mid 1980's) my BF was the manager of a movie theater. He came home once shaking his head. He said that the electric can opener thy used to open the butter gunk broke, but there was a hand can opener there too.
He said the high school girl behind the concession stand had no idea what it was, or how to use it.

As far as college kids and laundry, I remember my older brother when to a college where is stayed during the week, came home on the weekend, and my mother did his clothes.

I tend to agree it's generational. "Kids today..." has been a lament going way back.

I know that when I was a kid, I thought that my generation was being unfairly maligned ("kid" = actual kid to college or so). And while I know that my corner of the earth is just that, a corner, pretty much none of the horrorstories I'm seeing about this generation seems to apply to the kids I know.

In neither cohort (mine, my daughter's) was there universal perfection of course. Plenty of messed-up people for one reason or another. But I just don't think either is so much WORSE than the generations before.

a lot of it is just generational I think

but these two always freak me out when I run across them in real life



I'm completely unable to understand ^^^

and not just five year olds in strollers (bad enough), but seven and eight year olds in strollers - I noticed a fair bit of that at the fair in August. More noticeable each year.

and more small people who can walk and talk well at diaper-changing stations

nope.

can't get my head around these

I think this author is guilty of gimmicky hyperbolic nonsense.

Every previous generation can make this claim about the following generation regarding different social and cultural practices that fall by the wayside due to technological or educational induced obsolesence.

I bet one generation once cried "those damn youngsters can't even hoe the fields or make candles...."

Fearmongering and poor use of alleged anecdotal evidence doesn't make a global trend.

I don't think it's necessarily a generational thing. A lot depends on what happens in the family home and if the parents take the time to teach their children every day stuff that wouldn't be taught in schools - "common sense stuff".

they don't even know what a buggy whip is! "hello operator, can you ring up Elsie"

Yeah that was my viewpoint at most of you - generational. So there are things these kids can do that is mind boggling - how the h*ll does a 3 year old get around on a computer so quickly for instance.

There are things that I see that makes me think also damn these kids are dumb - like those that cannot do simple math working on a cash register. But these are not all the kids - some are damn smart at math. The ones that stick out are the dumb ones because their "dumbness" is so startling.

When my kids were in school I was shocked to learn they didn't know how to address an envelope to send their school pics out to family. I had to teach them. It was not taught at school. Ever. This was around 3rd and 5th grade. They also didn't know the 2 letter state abbreviations. Seems like state abbreviations was a 4th / 5th grade curriculum for me.

When they were teens and I took them to the bank to open accounts for their part-time earnings, I had to teach them how to keep a register accounting of their transactions. They were not taught this in school unless they took a business class.

When it was time to do a research paper, they didn't know how to go to a library, use the card catalog or Dewey decimal system. In discussing this with a teacher, I was told they can get it online and besides, research books weren't available in the library.

For writing a research paper, they also were not taught how to properly do an outline.

They DO know how to do laundry. They just don't always do it right cause they don't want to wait another hour for their whites to wash separately. Supposedly they have places to go... in their pink whites. : )

I think the how to use the library example was an eye opener for me. Things have changed with info being on the internet. I had to adjust to that not being a bad thing. I still morn the loss of serious, real libraries.

I guess it is who should be teaching our children these "common sense" basic things - the schools or the parents. Some basic common sense things are no longer taught in schools - they are too busy teaching to the MCAS it seems sometimes.

I do remember learning how to look up a book at the library at school, I rememeber learning about keeping your checkbook in balance in school and some stuff like that.

I don't think they teach those now in school. I have gone to the local library with my kids to help them find books either for reading, general interest or for a book report. We used the catelog in the library to look these things up and then I brought them to the rows of books and showed them how to find the book they wanted. It seems this was the first they were exposed to this.

there's this concept, it used to be called "parents" now it's called "primary education" these are different things.

Yup, I think parents need to move into that role. A good one, for example, would be "how to manage your money", along with the laundry and cooking stuff.

Many young kids get into early trouble with credit card debt.

I think this is all bullshit. Stupid people have been dumb forever, and there's no reason to believe that computers have accelerated this at all.

Cycloptichorn

Right. But, most of us were taught these things in school while having a parent at home. Now, both parents are working, kids go to after school care, come home and have time for dinner,, homework and bath before bed. I think parents have less time to teach the practical stuff, and kids are missing out.

I was fortunate to be home/ self-employed during their early years. I was also fortunate to have youngest cub extremely interested in being in the kitchen which meant a lot of skills got learned while we "played." Daughter refused to be in the kitchen due to her self imposed rebellion to doing anything thought to be womans work. I made her take Home Economics.

We also used to play "What if..." where I would ask (usually as a game in the car) What if you were lost in the woods by yourself and it was almost dark. What would you do? They came up with answers. I added what I might do. Then they would get to ask a question. Youngest cubs usually involved something that included putting us in outer space... : ) Anyway, that's how I got info into them about following a stream, covering with leaves, finding creative solutions that they wouldn't otherwise get as city kids.

My mourning the loss of real libraries is for selfish reasons. We had a fantastic city library that was several stories high and seemed to hold every book ever written. I could get lost in there forever. In college, I spent considerable time at the university library just exploring. I'm heading to a bookstore shortly to do the same thing. Libraries here are just fiction, best seller stuff. Boring!

These are all examples of tasks that have been overtaken by technology.

Kids today have velco closures on their shoes, pull-ups make it easy for parents to be lazy about potty training, strong and lightweight strollers make it easy to put bigger kids in them. Automatic ice makers are the norm, etc.


The laundry one is kinda sad, but the others make me say "meh." Who addresses an envelope when you can send E-mail and pay bills online?

I guess this is as good a time as any to admit that I have to have the kids teach me how to use my new phone, show me why it's beeping and what button I hit that turned off the ringer. That Sync thing in my car still throws me...

wow, you have a sink in your car, fancy

We both work and still manage to do this stuff. I mean you need to cook at times, have them in the kitchen with you while doing it. Funny I did not even realize I was teaching them life skills when I do things like taking the train with them and quiz them where they would need to get off - stuff like that.

We still have a great library in my city - there is a great old part and a newer wing so you get the best of both. The only sad thing is - lots of drunks and homeless hang out there so it isn't safe for the kids to go by themselves. We have a homeless shelter nearby and there are several sex offenders listed at this shelter - many with prior convinctions on children.