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It seems we have a problem on our hands in the United States. Commerce practically shuts down if there's no electricity. Cashiers cannot make change without a calculator. People can't spell without a spell checker and it seems handwriting is a lost art.
Our current financial mess is a combined result of the fact that neither voters and consequently, their elected representatives, know how to budget or balance a checkbook.
Are these skills no longer considered necessary in today's age? Are they still taught in schools? If not, should they be? If they are, should more time be devoted to them?
It seems we are often expecting children to graduate to advanced levels of educating without first getting the building blocks down (reading, writing, arithmetic).
These are all still taught in school, or at least the schools I'm familiar with.
As far as the electricity and cashiers thing: if the electricity goes off it's likely not that the cashier can't make change, but rather that elaborate POS systems and other technologies cause problems. Go into a small store (or better yet, go buy something at a garage sale -- not a calculator or cash register in sight!) and you'll see that many people can still make change.
In general, though, things like spelling, handwriting, and making change get rusty with time. I have a feeling there are plenty of students who are probably faster at making change, are better at spelling, and have more legible writing than their parents.
I do believe they do need to focus more on esential skills for survival in the world, what about those with certifiable disabilities that effect that area? Like dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism,down's syndrome, etc. Are you going to blame them for the failure of our financial system to?
These are all still taught in school, or at least the schools I'm familiar with.
As far as the electricity and cashiers thing: if the electricity goes off it's likely not that the cashier can't make change, but rather that elaborate POS systems and other technologies cause problems. Go into a small store (or better yet, go buy something at a garage sale -- not a calculator or cash register in sight!) and you'll see that many people can still make change.
In general, though, things like spelling, handwriting, and making change get rusty with time. I have a feeling there are plenty of students who are probably faster at making change, are better at spelling, and have more legible writing than their parents.
I cannot emphasize how wrong you are. The teenagers and young adults of today could not count change back to you if their life depended on it. The spelling abilities of today's youth haven't been this bad since the late 1880's when 1/3 of the people couldn't read. You can thank spellcheck and text messaging, along with a lack of emphasis in the schools for this mess. Finally, if there was anything about your last sentence that was the MOST wrong it is the comment that today's young people's writing is more legible than their parents. They've had very little practice in school and even less in life. Everything they do now is done punching keys, whether it's on a computer, blackberry, or cellphone. Handwriting took a step backwards in MY generation (I'm 55) and has taken 2 more steps backward today. If you question this, read the Declaration of Independence AND the signatures of the men that signed it.
Where did I say that I blamed school children for the financial mess our country is in? I place the blame squarely where it belongs, on our elected officials and those who voted for them.
But how can people understand that electing fiscally irresponsible politicians (and please, let's try and keep partisan politics away, fiscal irresponsibility transcends party lines) is a bad thing when they don't even balance their own budgets?
It seems a number of local elementary schools in my area do, in fact, teach the skills mentioned in my OP. Why do they appear to be nonexistent in society?
I cannot emphasize how wrong you are. The teenagers and young adults of today could not count change back to you if their life depended on it. The spelling abilities of today's youth haven't been this bad since the late 1880's when 1/3 of the people couldn't read. You can thank spellcheck and text messaging, along with a lack of emphasis in the schools for this mess. Finally, if there was anything about your last sentence that was the MOST wrong it is the comment that today's young people's writing is more legible than their parents. They've had very little practice in school and even less in life. Everything they do now is done punching keys, whether it's on a computer, blackberry, or cellphone. Handwriting took a step backwards in MY generation (I'm 55) and has taken 2 more steps backward today. If you question this, read the Declaration of Independence AND the signatures of the men that signed it.
You really think kids in school today are doing all their work on computers, day in and day out? Maybe that's the reality where you're from, but that hasn't been my experience. Kids still learn how to write; it's not like it's a lost art form. Penmanship today is generally less elegant than it was several generations ago, but there's little difference between those learning to write today and those learning to write thirty or forty years ago. (and it wasn't all so legible in the past, either; I say that having spent far too many hours trying to decipher scrawling census records, manuscripts, and other historical documents.) I think people generally get lazier with their writing as they get older, and it's the parents who don't often have reason to write things out, not the kids. It's the parents who have the blackberries, etc.
I do think writing in general (not handwriting, but spelling, etc.) has been impacted by texting and other modern technologies, but it's just plain wrong to suggest that kids today aren't learning how to spell, write, make change, etc. in school. And the kids that I spend time with are pretty adept at all of these things. These are all pretty basic skills that get rusty as they get older and aren't using them as much (paying with credit card, connected to work with a blackberry, etc.), but -- at least in the schools I'm familiar with -- the classrooms themselves still aren't nearly as technology-dependent as the average adult workplace.
I know this is an old topic, but I found it ironic that the word "penmanship" was spelled incorrectly in the OP's title line.
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