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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.
I disagree on many of these. While I agree that progress is being made, I don't see it being immediately available to everyone. Unless many lower income families today have a drastic change in economic status, I don't see self-driving cars, and robotic robots and lawnmowers as something everyone will have in 15 years or so....just the well-to-do's.
I also think that people will still do some of these things just because. My wife would crucify me if I ever suggested she buy a pre-packaged meal and cook that instead. I have some vintage cars that my young children have expressed interest in driving. Some have manual transmissions. They will learn to drive them if they want.
15 years comes quick. I know society is making progress, but I don' think it will be as quick as everyone thinks. I distinctly remember when I was 10 years old being told they might have flying cars by the time I got my license. I'm still waiting for my flying car.
I was taught how to type on a typewriter in middle-school, and I'm not even 35. I wouldn't guess there are 100 total Americans under the age of 25 who could load, and use correctly, a typewriter.
Cooking yourself is the number one way to maintain a healthy diet.
Driving? Seriously? That's location dependent and not going anywhere.
Cleaning and home maintenance must are the most basic skills all homeowners should possess.
While it may be inconvenient and inefficient to change your own oil, everyone who owns a car should understand the principles and basic maintenance of engines. Many are not difficult.
I have a story about this. About a block away from me lived a family with a number of issues working against them. Because of this I perceived of their children as neglected and used to do a little something with one or the other of them and sometimes all of them in the summertime.
The youngest was always walking around with his tennies untied and when I learned that he didn't know how to tie them I thought to teach him how. That would only take about a week, right? Guess not. We're talking slow learner here.
He struggled; I struggled. But finally he got it. Hooray! Joy and jubilation!
Imagine how disgusted I was when he showed up the night before school started with his new Velcro tennies saying, "Look, Lodestar - I don't have to tie my shoes anymore."
Maybe that's a good thing but I'm not sure. Somehow it felt like low expectations to me.
Voice dictation is still extremely unreliable. I can type faster than Siri/voice dictation can interpret what I'm saying, and that's assuming it does so accurately without the need to repeat what I said.
Autonomous cars may be the reality by the time today's babies are of driving age. With that said, I still don't see autonomous vehicles handling all potential driving patterns (rural, high rates of speed, snowy, extreme winding roads, wildlife frequently in road, off-road driving) for a long time to come. There are still going to be motorsports as well.
Tying your shoes? Other than tennis shoes, I don't think I have a pair of shoes with laces anymore. It's a personal preference.
Mowing is much the same as driving, but autonomous mowers will probably be more practical, sooner.
Many new cars do not have a spare tire, but there's still space for one, and there will still be flats. Oil changes aren't going anywhere as long as you have the ICE.
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