As my youngest child nears that eighteen year old milestone, I ponder more and more on all of the things his generation cannot do. I mean they all are so computer savvy we tend to forget there are some things they either didn’t learn, or haven’t mastered enough. And I also wonder if it even matters that they can’t do those things.
I mean, I joke that the younger generation cannot drive, and we all know that it is dangerous not to know how to drive properly. If a person does not know how to drive and they are still on the road driving, that would be a big problem. So no, things like knowing how to drive is not on my list of five, for obvious reasons.
There are a few things the next generation cannot do consistently as a whole and people do not seem to have a problem with that. Some of these things I put on this list, I can agree may be trivial. But there are some things I still believe it is important for the next generation to be able to do! So here is my list and you can feel free to add to it in the comments. Let’s begin ……..
- Cursive Write
Okay, this may be one of the more trivial ones on this list. And while this may be petty to you, imagine my surprise when I first learned that NONE of my children could cursive write. When I happened to find out one day and I even forget how the conversation came about, but they looked at me like I had two heads when I ran to my then husband screaming, “When did they stop teaching kids how to cursive write?” He thought it was hilarious that I was so surprised seeing how we hated cursive writing growing up.
But that wasn’t the point for me. If cursive writing wasn’t important why the heck did I have to learn it? And of course I was convinced my children were being shorted when it came to learning this skill as if it would harm them in some way if they can’t cursive write. I mean they all can sign their name….and that’s mainly the only reason cursive writing is used today and even then it is not necessary.
- Spell
Not knowing how to spell is a big problem. It doesn’t help that everything spells for us now. Technology has made it so your spelling can be corrected as you mistype a word on a computer without you having to look the word up in the dictionary like previous generations.
My question is, what if you had to grab an ingredient and you misread the label? The mistake could cost someone their health if you worked in let’s say somewhere likes a hospital and ingredients in medications can be similar in spelling…..yet more and more we see the next generation declare “Oh did I misspell that?” and not care to learn to spell the word they just have their phone correct the word for them…..or say, “You know what I meant to spell”.
I’m on the fence on if we should rely so much on things that check our spelling, but I definitely think more of the next generations should be able to spell correctly.
- Vote
It’s disgraceful that so many of the younger generations do not vote. I grew up not only voting, I also worked at the polling places with my grandmother who was very active in her community. I grew up learning that it was my duty to vote and it grieves me that my children in particular do not see the importance in it.
But what also is distressing is that the younger voters do not take the time to learn about political issues, political leaders or laws that need to be passed. They just are checked out of the political scene and that for me is a big problem as we see all of the issues that arise with voting in America.
- Speak Another Language
I hope that more young people would open their minds to learning a language other than English. As the world becomes increasingly more globalized, Americans have to embrace the need for future generations to be able to adapt to this increased reliance on the world. The best adaptation to a global economy is younger generations that can speak the languages of the world.
Unfortunately there are a lot of older Americans who are against any language being pushed into the educational system except for English. I think that gives a lot of the younger generation at a disadvantage as all over the world English is pushed onto people who can speak another language. It is a disadvantage to only speak English in my opinion.
- Be Courteous
This last thing is a tragic loss in manners. So many of the younger generation are just plain rude. And this in my opinion should not be something that they cannot do on a consistent basis. We learn to be courteous when we are toddlers for God’s sake, at least we should.
I think we as a country need to return to the basics were we encourage skills like saying “please” and “thank you” and waiting our turn, and not yelling in public. It’s the lost of these things that have made America a difficult place to live as more and more people become entitled beyond belief. So many teens are rude and belligerent and that is a shame, do you agree?
So what do you think about my list? Are there any things you think I should of included on my list?
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References:
Op-Ed: Kids can’t write cursive. The world won’t end – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Why some kids can’t spell and why spelling tests won’t help (theconversation.com)
5 Reasons People in the US Don’t Vote (globalcitizen.org)
When This Woman Speaks 