Good Food And Great Weather
6 hours ago
Friday, December 21, 2018
Practical Skills
My lovely wife and I are old enough to remember Home Economics and Shop classes. Yes, when we took them it was a rare guy who cooked and the rare girl who swung a hammer. Frankly, we should have all taken both courses. I've never regretted having both skill sets. Girls dig a guy who can cook.
These days those practical classes have pretty much disappeared. We didn't have computer classes back in the day. They were just coming in around the time we graduated high school back in 1976. Maybe that's what replaced the other courses.
It is disturbing the number of people who lack some really basic skills. Something like one third of Americans don't even know how to boil water. Twenty percent don't know how to use a can opener. People can't make mashed potatoes -from potatoes. They don't know how to scramble a couple of eggs. Drivers don't know how to change a flat tire or how to check the oil in the car. (hint, you don't wait for the little engine oil light to come on.)
Perhaps all the time we spend looking at screens has seriously cut into our time to do things in the physical world?
Never mind doing something like making your own pizza from scratch. The last pizza I make I ground whole wheat berries and made my own crust. I made a low salt pizza from basic ingredients. Being able to cook healthy meals from raw ingredients is becoming a lost art. Too many people eat nothing but microwavable prepared foods or take out.
What I find even more disturbing than people's lack of skills is their reluctance to even try to learn how to do things. I don't know where that attitude comes from. It's okay to make mistakes. It's fine to experiment a little. More helpful information is available than ever before, but there's more reluctance to try than ever before. Not everything you do has to be Instagram perfect.
-Sixbears
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Amazing, ain't it?
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is!
ReplyDeleteSo very true. Yesterday, one of my coworkers marveled at my lunch. A bell pepper, cored out filled with burger meat that had cheese and salsa mixed in when I stuffed it. Very simple to make and a pound of burger makes and 4 peppers makes 4 lunches for very little $$$.
ReplyDelete"Did your wife make that for you"
"No, I cooked it myself. It was EASY"
"Really ? I wish I was handy in the kitchen ..."
Wow, just wow.
Wow indeed. They wish they were handy in the kitchen, but make no effort to learn the simple skills.
DeleteBeyond not having skills they have no comprehension about how things work materially / mechanically. And given the choice they don't want to know so they don't loose the illusion. They are consumed by appearance and instant mouse click gratification, with no regard for what actually makes it all happen or how it is built. Make belief and theater is reality for them because the talking head on the tube tells them is is so. And they all bob their heads in unison. It is like we are living in a cargo culture Lord of the Flies world. Terrifying really. I want no part in it.
ReplyDeleteI think you have it figured out. You and I grew up in different worlds. We carved wood and bent steel.
DeleteWhen they have to deal with reality, it could get ugly.
Then again, there are times when I feel like I'm an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn.
I forced my son to learn to cook hoping he would follow and do BBQ for a living . not to be he was to lazy. My daughters can;t cook anything we would call food. I asked my cousin a teacher why life skills where not taught in schools.His reply was outside of their field of subjects most teacher are idiots!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad my kids can both cook and use power tools. One of my daughters proudly stated she brought the power tools to her relationship.
DeleteBack in the days when I was contract engineer and did short stints and many different companies at different sites, me wife stayed home with the kids who still attended school. I had to learn to cook or either go hungry or broke.
ReplyDeleteYou weren't afraid to learn, and that's one thing that separates the generations.
DeleteI'm guessing self-sufficiency, and frugal thinking were lost somewhere during the near past. If it wasn't my own country, I'd be fascinated by anyone that studied the phenomenon. Instead, I'm appalled and sad.
ReplyDeleteWe are far enough away from the Great Depression that people have forgotten.
Delete