Things young children of today will not need to learn. (teaching, money)
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For instance, kids using laptops in school need to type, you can't have a classroom full of kids all talking to their computers instead of typing, esp. during tests, and they aren't going to be writing exams with their thumbs.
And cooking. Nopity nope nope to the idea that microwaved meals are remotely good enough to replace actual cooking.
Although the skill of driving has not been mandatory in major cities for decades, the skill will remain useful for a significant majority of the population. I feel that autonomous vehicles are only a pipe dream. We can't afford to maintain our dumb highways, how will we afford to replace them Carte Blanche with "Smart Highways" which include the sensors necessary for autonomous vehicles to operate? Did no one ever play with a model train set as a child and experience the repeated failures caused by track joints becoming electrically disconnected? Somehow the roadway joints won't have this issue? I have had too many instances of a GPS device suddenly failing due to cloud cover to accept this as the guidance tool.
Manual transmissions? Yeah, probably. It is difficult to find new cars even being offered with a sick-shift, although this transmission type is now the best theft deterrent possible on a new car!
Autotune and sampling will not be able to replicate the talent of a true talented artist.. An auto-tuned Britney can not move the human soul like the reverberations from the cello of YoYo Ma. It would take the human race becoming tone deaf for electronic tricks to replace musical talent.
Right. Such "music" sounds like Stephen Hawking reading poetry.
I laughed in a civil way:
Not knowing how to read a paper map!
I missed that course too! At 56 I have to flip the map and have a heck of a time knowing north...East. ..
My bf and I greatly disagreed on the ease of reading a map. I told him that I have to have a point of reference and then figure out which direction we are traveling. He thought I was dumber then a rock. I know that to most guys..direction is easy...I have to have a point of reference ...it's how I'm wired.
I still have paper maps.
My grand daughter loves kitchen time. It's a bonding time...making ice cream...decorating cakes...and making salads. She enjoys those moments.
Education of todays very young children kids will be pretty different from our education. They will need to learn things we cannot even imagine right now, and they wi not need to learn a lot of things we had to learn. A lot of things we learned (and use) will not longer be relevant for these kids. Some are school skills some are basic life skill taught by parents. A few come to mind:
How to drive (and certainly not manual transmission).
Cursive writing. (Already dying out).
Change the oil in a car. (Unlikely to be needed and probably impractical for most people anyway).
Typing. (Voice recognition and thumb typing have already pretty much taken over. A few places remain where typing is needed, but they will be gone by the time current pre-scholers are of working age.)
Change a tire. (Already dying out. Many new cars do not even have a spare).
Cooking other than the most rudimentary skills. (Prepackaged microwave meals are too convenient and keep getting better and better quality. Why cook?).
Tying shoes. (No need. Other types of fasteners work better).
Mow a lawn. (Robot lawn mowers are already becoming common).
Vacuum or mop (again robots already do this).
I wonder whether singing and playing music will remain a taught skill? As auto-tune and sampling improve music may become just an issue of operating a computer. Already many of the current pop starts are terribly singers and many are even terrible musicians. Will we still be teaching music to kids in 15 years? It helps develop logical thinking and math skills, but those skills can be developed in other ways. I hope so, but I wonder.
What else?
I'm not sure if you are serious or not but:
Driving - when exactly do you think cars will be programmed to navigate dirt roads that may or may not be wide enough for two way traffic but that carry two way traffic? Or when cars are programmed to recognize ahead of the vehicle actually getting to that spot the many different kinds of snow & ice & mud conditions. Or can recognize the difference between a deer, bear, and moose given their very different natures & movements. And that's just the start of driving in the rural north.
Cursive - I suppose for those who want to be unable to read old documents and rely on others to tell them things. Text scanners are great but highly inaccurate with old handwriting and poor handwriting.
Change Oil in a Car - Silly thing to even put on the list. Most don't do it now, but not everyone can afford to pay someone to do it for them.
Typing - Maybe.
Tires - You know there are vast areas where there is no cell service to call AAA don't you?
Cooking - Maybe some of us have more refined palates than frozen dinners. Perhaps more importantly not everyone can afford to do takeout and actually need to prepare foods from scratch
Tying shoes - I'll give you this one. It's possible perhaps.
Mow a lawn - I'd love to see this but I won't hold my breath waiting for one that could take over my 6 acre lawn, and manuever around the flower beds, trees, an occasional stump, along an uneven centuries old stone wall, go around my pond, and uneven terrain etc.
Vacuum/Mop - My old home is on 3 levels. Do I need to buy 3 sets of robots or will they climb stairs? Will they be flat enough to get under the couch or do we no longer clean there? Etc.
Clearly you are an urban dweller somehow shielded from the lives the masses lead. You need to get out to the real world outside of the city.
I think a lot of it depends on where you live and other circumstances. Manual transmission is still quite common in the rest of the world, as is cursive. In many countries you could almost be considered illiterate if you can't read cursive. I don't know any men in New York City who wear sneakers with velcro to the office, of course they have laces on their shoes. Why would tying your shoe laces even be considered a skill? It's part of regular life as brushing your teeth or combing your hair. It is true that most people have skills they do not use but so what? It's nice to have a choice or do certain things just for fun. For example, I am certainly happy that I learned to knit and sew even if I buy my clothes at the store. I can grow vegetables and cook, but I don't have to, because I could just buy pasta sauce in a jar.
Driving - when exactly do you think cars will be programmed to navigate dirt roads that may or may not be wide enough for two way traffic but that carry two way traffic? Or when cars are programmed to recognize ahead of the vehicle actually getting to that spot the many different kinds of snow & ice & mud conditions. Or can recognize the difference between a deer, bear, and moose given their very different natures & movements. And that's just the start of driving in the rural north.
Cursive - I suppose for those who want to be unable to read old documents and rely on others to tell them things. Text scanners are great but highly inaccurate with old handwriting and poor handwriting.
Change Oil in a Car - Silly thing to even put on the list. Most don't do it now, but not everyone can afford to pay someone to do it for them.
Typing - Maybe.
Tires - You know there are vast areas where there is no cell service to call AAA don't you?
Cooking - Maybe some of us have more refined palates than frozen dinners. Perhaps more importantly not everyone can afford to do takeout and actually need to prepare foods from scratch
Tying shoes - I'll give you this one. It's possible perhaps.
Mow a lawn - I'd love to see this but I won't hold my breath waiting for one that could take over my 6 acre lawn, and maneuver around the flower beds, trees, an occasional stump, along an uneven centuries old stone wall, go around my pond, and uneven terrain etc.
Vacuum/Mop - My old home is on 3 levels. Do I need to buy 3 sets of robots or will they climb stairs? Will they be flat enough to get under the couch or do we no longer clean there? Etc.
Clearly you are an urban dweller somehow shielded from the lives the masses lead. You need to get out to the real world outside of the city.
Driving - have you seen what the prototype self driving cars can already do? they can recognize road conditions, the cars talk to each other so they know where other cars are and what they are doing. This is now. The rate at which technology is increasing is increasing exponentially. In other words we will advance considerably more in the next five years than we have in the past five. We will have self driving cars within 5 years. They already have test models, especially trucks. I have no doubt they will be the norm within 15 years. Yes a few outliers will drive the old cars, just like now. How man people today can drive manual transmissions? How many drivers ed courses teach manual? (none that i know of, except truck driver schools).
Cursive is already on its way out. No chance it will be taught in five or ten more years. There are too many other things they need to teach kids that are more important today, like how to understand the 52 or 134 different genders.
Cooking. My kids can cook, but they rarely do. At least rarely more than heating something up. The better brands of pre-made meals taste better than what most people can make on their own. They are concocted by a team of professional chefs and sometimes dietitians and then preserved by teams of scientists. Look at how well Amazon and similar companies are doing with delivered meal plans.
Mowing - robot mowers that can handle rough terrain, mow multiple acres etc are already here. They are just insanely expensive right now. that is how all technology is in the early stages. Do you remember when a computer with a small fraction of your current desktop cost $4,000? People said they would never be practical for every day use. Look at where we are.
Yes you do need a robo vacuum/mop for each level. Yes they are flat enough to go under couches. They recharge themselves. You set their schedule, put them on the charger, ignore them. At the preset time, the leave the charger, sweep or mop, then return to the charger. They are still a bit expensive ($250 or so but can be found for $100 on sale). the price will come down. They also need to learn to empty themselves. That will be a little more involved, but it is doable.
Talking instead of typing things already has solid technology. the issue of multiple people talking at once is a simple logistical problem that will get figured out soon. that is how it works. An impediment to the use of technology pops up, and eventually someone comes along and figures out a way around that impediment. Just because you cannot even imagine any possible way the impediment can be overcome, does not mean there is no one who can figure it out. That is how technological advancement works. Every step there have been people (lot of them) saying it will never be possible or never practical, there is no way around this obstacle. Then someone comes along and says "I will find a way around the obstacle" - and they do.
Just because there are outliers who will still need to do things the old fashioned way, does not mean they will continue to teach kids to do things the old fashioned way. Look at:
Rotary telephones. My Dad still uses one. My kids had no idea how to use it. Yes they figured it out, but virtually no one teaches kids to use one.
I taught my kids how to change a tire. but most of them have never done it. Most would not remember how to do it. More and more new cars do not come with spare tires (apparently you did not know this). If the cars have no spares, what is the point in teaching someone to change tires?
Oil changes - i do not do oil changes myself, even though I can basically rebuild any part of a car myself. why? it costs $28 for a 7 quart oil change and they do it in five to ten minutes, check and top off all the fluids, check the belts, wipers, and adjust the headlight aim if needed. That costs me about $9 - $13 more than it costs me to do it myself. But it takes me longer (I do not have a lift, a pit, nor a hydraulic oil delivery system), plus I have to deal with the mess of storing, hauling and disposing of the oil. Plus I do not have a heated location to do an oil change, so it is unpleasant for half the year. Of my five kids, I taught all of them to change their oil. Only two ever had any interst in learning it though. One changes his own oil, but he no longer owns a car. Another can change his oil, but his car sits in our driveway unused. He is in college and has no need or sue for a cr, so he has no need to change the oil. Maybe this summer, but I expect he will pay less than $28 for an oil change before he jacks up his car and lays in the gravel to do something that will save him less than $10. If you happen to spill the oil, you have created a toxic waste situation. w e live on a major waterway that feeds into the great lakes, so if we spill some, we cannot just ignore it in good conscience. If you change your own oil regularly, you will eventually spill some. then you have a big problem to clean it up.. It is simply no longer cost effective to DIY, except for outliers who do not have access to an affordable oil change place. People with focused job skills and specialty tools designed to make a specific task more efficient, can do some things far far better safer and faster than you can at home. It is really impractical and irresponsible to do some thing DIY anymore. Given that, why would people teach their kids? Why would the kids bother to learn? Yes there are exceptions, but that does not mean it will continue to be taught generally.
Ringer washers. Yup there are people who actually still use them. That does not mean kids are taught to use them.
Typewriters. If my kids have ever seen a typewriter, I am sure they cannot remember it. They were certainly never taught to type on one.
Fax machines. Yes we still have them in our office. We even use them once a month or so. They will be gone in less than 10 years and no one will know how to use one. How many kids can operate a gestetner? I was taught that in school, but now? Nope they do not even know what it is. If you describe it, kids cannot even understand what you are referring to.
Saddling a horse. Nearly every kid used to learn to saddle a horse as part of their basic education. Now?
Things change. they are going to continue to change dramatically. People over about 35 tend to freak out over change, deny it get angry about it (scroll through posts above for examples). Still things will continue to change and they will change faster and faster than ever before.
Interestingly something that is already apparently no longer taught is civil discourse. very few people can have a discussion and certainly not a disagreement without turning nasty and insulting. We simply no longer know how to do that anymore. It is not taught. Sure maybe as much as 20% of the population is still capable of civil discourse. But is is nearly gone and obviously not taught in schools anymore.
The problem is not my lack of knowledge of how people live in different locations (at least in the US) the problem is a lack of understanding of where technology already is and how fast it is advancing, also the resistance to and hatred of change inherent in older humans.
By the way, the "masses" are urban dwellers. You did not know this?
Last edited by Coldjensens; 02-06-2019 at 07:37 AM..
Education of todays very young children kids will be pretty different from our education. They will need to learn things we cannot even imagine right now, and they wi not need to learn a lot of things we had to learn. A lot of things we learned (and use) will not longer be relevant for these kids. Some are school skills some are basic life skill taught by parents. A few come to mind:
How to drive (and certainly not manual transmission).
Cursive writing. (Already dying out).
Change the oil in a car. (Unlikely to be needed and probably impractical for most people anyway).
Typing. (Voice recognition and thumb typing have already pretty much taken over. A few places remain where typing is needed, but they will be gone by the time current pre-scholers are of working age.)
Change a tire. (Already dying out. Many new cars do not even have a spare).
Cooking other than the most rudimentary skills. (Prepackaged microwave meals are too convenient and keep getting better and better quality. Why cook?).
Tying shoes. (No need. Other types of fasteners work better).
Mow a lawn. (Robot lawn mowers are already becoming common).
Vacuum or mop (again robots already do this).
I wonder whether singing and playing music will remain a taught skill? As auto-tune and sampling improve music may become just an issue of operating a computer. Already many of the current pop starts are terribly singers and many are even terrible musicians. Will we still be teaching music to kids in 15 years? It helps develop logical thinking and math skills, but those skills can be developed in other ways. I hope so, but I wonder.
What else?
In the Navy, there is a tactical simulation called NAVTAG. It is to teach junior officers how to think in the first five minutes of a war.
When I "played" that game a generation ago, I ruled. Why? Because I could type and enter information faster into the computer than anyone else.
Don't discount typing.
If you want to pay more for food, go ahead, don't learn how to cook. I make out like a bandit because I can cook, can use basic ingredients, and refuse to put up with excess packaging.
Where's this robot servant I am suppose to have?
Ever heard of Barbara Eden? She started out as a singer. She was told that she could hit every note perfectly but she needed to get the message out to audience, she needed to communicate the feeling. So that led to her becoming an actress.
Do I do that when I sing? Probably in public. I am playing a part so to communicate the words. Something to boost the energy of me as a singer and to make it personal to who I am singing to.
There is more to singing than just notes.
Then, of course, there are what factors make you important, someone not to kill, if you are taken hostage.
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