Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?

[UFO]

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&pid=0&sid=2063747&page=1

Second-graders who can't tie shoes or zip jackets. Four-year-olds in Pull-Ups diapers. Five-year-olds in strollers. Teens and preteens befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays. College kids who've never done laundry, taken a bus alone or addressed an envelope.

Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? And do we have only ourselves to blame? Or are some of these things simply the result of kids growing up with push-button technology in an era when mechanical devices are gradually being replaced by electronics?

On a side note my wife said some of her high school students don't know how to tell time off a dial clock.

[bomber]

My dad would answer the question, "yes."

Of course, so would HIS dad.

[greench440]

[Fourstring]

No pun intended. Listening to the idiotic things my parents/grandparents say, I think we're about level.

[Johnny Monsoon]

and yet it takes a young person to network your computer, program your cell phone, set the timers on your DVR...

[kevin_stevens]

I don't think this is a very good article, it doesn't really target the issues.

Yes, if a kid can't tie shoe laces because they've always had Velcro, they have a gap.  Whose fault is that?!?  The parents, clearly.  Same with addressing an envelope - envelopes have been going out of that house all their life, the parents didn't sit down and show (or task) them with learning that administrivia??  I remember my mom showing me how to fill out a check.

Beyond that, I agree that the *attitude* is what's important, not the tools.  If the current generation uses the internet to come up with a brownie recipe instead of a cookbook, who cares?  The point is, can they bake brownies and figure out how to get the resources they need to do it.

I don't expect a modern teenager to be able to clean and gap a points ignition - or even a spark plug if they don't use power equipment; but again, that's just trivia.  Being able to figure out what a problem *is*, then solve it, then fix it is the core set of competencies.

KeS

[Rincewind]

They will always have youtube to figure out how things work later in life.  

[UFO]

Beyond that, I agree that the *attitude* is what's important, not the tools.  If the current generation uses the internet to come up with a brownie recipe instead of a cookbook, who cares?  The point is, can they bake brownies and figure out how to get the resources they need to do it.

And I think the point of the article is that kids would rather buy a brownie than care how it was made or where it came from or how to make it tastier or what's in it or......

Problem solving skills is becoming a lost art with kids, because it's not being taught, nor is it being reinforced by parents.  If a problem falls outside the menu, they don't know what to do nor do they make much of an effort to figure it out.  They just shrug and say "I dunno."

[chornbe]

This is a good post.  

As noted, some of this is just evolutionary or exposure (the velcro vs. tie shoes, for example).

I do not know how to milk a cow or churn my own butter. Yet I seem to live OK in the modern world.

But yes, I agree, that there is a sense of entitlement, it seems, that I do not remember having in my childhood and teens.

I don't think this is a very good article, it doesn't really target the issues.

Yes, if a kid can't tie shoe laces because they've always had Velcro, they have a gap.  Whose fault is that?!?  The parents, clearly.  Same with addressing an envelope - envelopes have been going out of that house all their life, the parents didn't sit down and show (or task) them with learning that administrivia??  I remember my mom showing me how to fill out a check.

Beyond that, I agree that the *attitude* is what's important, not the tools.  If the current generation uses the internet to come up with a brownie recipe instead of a cookbook, who cares?  The point is, can they bake brownies and figure out how to get the resources they need to do it.

I don't expect a modern teenager to be able to clean and gap a points ignition - or even a spark plug if they don't use power equipment; but again, that's just trivia.  Being able to figure out what a problem *is*, then solve it, then fix it is the core set of competencies.

KeS

[JReazor]

Sure, some of that list is pretty scary but some skills are becoming increasingly unnecessary. I can't remember the last time I addressed an envelope and dial faced clock exist only for aesthetic reasons. Most of them are controlled electronically anyway. I know quite a few adults that have never driven a car with a manual transmission.

How many of us knows how to preserve peaches or start a car with a hand crank?

[bomber]

start a car with a hand crank?

 

[bomber]

oh, wait, I just made your point, didn't I?

[chornbe]

oh, wait, I just made your point, didn't I?

It's 'cause you're old.

[knolltop314]

My dad would answer the question, "yes."

Of course, so would HIS dad.

I've become one of those "DADS".

[bomber]

It's 'cause you're old.

After careful consideration, I must say, "Hell YEAH!"

;-}

[phoenix]

Problem solving skills is becoming a lost art with kids, because it's not being taught, nor is it being reinforced by parents.  If a problem falls outside the menu, they don't know what to do nor do they make much of an effort to figure it out.  They just shrug and say "I dunno."

with respect to electronic equipment, I would disagree. While I occasionally get called to figure out what's wrong with something, my youngin' tends to be pretty self sufficient. Keep pushing buttons until it works!  

But to the comment about parenting - yeah, that's got to be a significant part of the problem. Mom and Dad work too much and don't spend time with the kids. And they hire out the help when possible. While my daughter is not particularly interested in learning to cook (because then it becomes a new chore for her), she's picking it up. She WAS really interested a few years ago to help me build a loft for her bedroom. power tools and all. They want to be involved. Oil changes? No, not yet. She refers to that as "motorcycle junk, no thanks Dad."

[squeezer]

and yet it takes a young person to network your computer, program your cell phone, set the timers on your DVR...

Which is actually a very good point. I could write an equally valid article about middle aged people allowing themselves to become nincompoops because they aren't bothering to learn the skill sets needed in the 21st century.

I work with college students every day. Their problem solving skills are just fine. Or, at least, I haven't seen any degradation in that over the last 30 years of being in the classroom.

Their skill sets are definitely different. The shocker for me is the number of students coming into college now who can't write in cursive. It's no longer part of the elementary school curriculum in many areas so they never learned. Does that make them stupid? No. Their keyboard skills kick the crap out of students I had 20 years ago. They don't focus as well as my former students. They multitask better. They don't read as much. They use more sources of information than any students I've ever had. And they're definitely better at the teamwork/group think thing.

They're different, and some of it seems weird to me (especially the cursive thing). They're not worse or dumber.

Oh, and I taught my son how to change the oil in his car last weekend.     My dad didn't know how.


EDIT: The one thing that is definitely true, though:  their music sucks and it's too loud.  

[Orson]

could be perception.

who uses can openers today?  

In the book Guns, Germs and Steel, the author states that while we view the aboriginal tribes of New Guinea as backwards, they in turn view westerners as fools because they cannot differentiate between poisonous and non-poisonous plants in the rainforest  

[kevin_stevens]

Which is actually a very good point. I could write an equally valid article about middle aged people allowing themselves to become nincompoops because they aren't bothering to learn the skill sets needed in the 21st century.

I work with college students every day. Their problem solving skills are just fine. Or, at least, I haven't seen any degradation in that over the last 30 years of being in the classroom.

Their skill sets are definitely different. The shocker for me is the number of students coming into college now who can't write in cursive. It's no longer part of the elementary school curriculum in many areas so they never learned. Does that make them stupid? No. Their keyboard skills kick the crap out of students I had 20 years ago. They don't focus as well as my former students. They multitask better. They don't read as much. They use more sources of information than any students I've ever had. And they're definitely better at the teamwork/group think thing.

They're different, and some of it seems weird to me (especially the cursive thing). They're not worse or dumber.

Oh, and I taught my son how to change the oil in his car last weekend.     My dad didn't know how.


EDIT: The one thing that is definitely true, though:  their music sucks and it's too loud.  

I can barely write in cursive myself.  I haven't written more than a paragraph at a time in years, and not many of those.  Now I sure hope they're making typing mandatory instead...

KeS

[black hills]

the problem is people confuse intelligence with education, they are very different things. Someone may be more intelligent than you, but if you are educated in a certain field you will appear "smarter" than they are. It really means nothing other than you are a more well trained monkey than they are.
Everyone you meet, no matter how stupid you think they are, knows more about something than you do. it's just a matter of what trhe subject is and how important it is to you

Personally I think kids to day are idiots. They on the other hand think the same of me