45 Replies to “The Children Are Our Future”

  3. As a contractor, most of the untrained people I hire are labourers. Its almost impossible to find someone under the age of 30 who can measure a board or swing a hammer properly. The 16-25 age group are incredulous when handed a shovel and told to get down in the hole and dig. Apparently it’s hard to dig and text at the same time.

  4. Working on cars, appliances, and with hand tools provides endless hours of learning entertainment.
    Over the summer my ‘entertainment’ was stripping down and replacing the diswasher motor and repairing the pump housing.
    Total cost: in parts $240.00
    New dishwasher with stainless steel liner: $1200-$1800
    Savings approximately: $760.00 which is the price for a base model dishwashwer.
    Repairing daughters ‘new’ old Volvo: install new battery and starter motor. Cost $250.00 in parts.
    Dad and uncle’s labour: free.
    More fun and games with family computer motherboard and power supply on the fritz.
    Sent back the power suppy to the manufacturer as it was still under warranty. For $75.00 the motherboard manufacturer replaced the old server board which originally cost in the $500.00 region.
    Time to strip down the computer and rebuild about 4 hours.
    More computer delights awaited as the hard drive on the son’s laptop died. Remove and replace, reinstall operating system. Cost $242.00 for two new higher speed and capacity drives. Dad’s labour gratis.
    Of course the sales people would have loved to sell you a new dishwasher, car, desktop or laptop computer and stimulate the ‘economy’. Other than removing and replacing a number of defective or broken parts the problem is that the kids don’t learn anything.
    My son’s ‘entertainment’ this year was sinking fenceposts and putting up the fence with Opa. This kind of stuff builds character and practical skills.
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  5. I know lots of contractors who pay $30 an hour to anyone who can use a tape measure and swing a hammer, just to keep them. I was always puzzled as to how many new workers got let go after their first day. It all makes sense now.

  6. A generation of emos, texters and first person shooter video gamers.
    Is there anything productive they can do?

  7. this is excellent news for me.
    when I hit 70 I plan on starting a reno business hiring only those of my age and fitness to do the work. zero competition from the ipod generation. oh, and the inept professionals that can converse 24/7 about investment opps but dont even know what a hammer is? they get to pay triple the going rate.

  8. Some twenty years ago I agreed to be the leader of a Boy Scout group. (It was in the days just before they decided to let girls join, but that’s another story)
    I was amazed to find that my 11 and 12 year old charges had never been sent to the store to buy groceries, had never cooked a meal, much let alone organized themselves to be able to go on a camping trip for the weekend. So we did just that, and the boys thought I was the grandest leader in the whole world.
    Meanwhile, parents and other regulators were aghast that I would let the boys light fires, that we would go off on a hike without a cell phone (just in case you know), or that I would refuse to specify to the hour when we would get back from a trip. I think the latest we ever got back was the time the boys decided that they no longer wanted to wash their dishes out in the bush, when the alternative was to take them home and put them in the dishwasher.
    Eventually the parents and regulators became adamant that I should bring girls along, with all the baggage that that entailed, so I quit the whole organization.
    Among my boys are a professional engineer or two, a professional chef, a successful mechanic, and several others who are Achievers. I run across them once in awhile, and they continue to thank me for those camping trips way back then. Maybe I should ask them if they ever do dishes by hand.

  10. One of the absolute key skills is tool and die making. If an industrial society loses the ability to make tools, it loses the capacity to make anything else. In the UK almost all tool and die makers are now from Europe, principally the old Iron Curtain countries, which kept the apprenticeship system going until recently. Computerised manufacturing has made inroads, but even computers need real tools at the sharp end.
    Someone once said about so-called “blue collar skills”: if your pipes won’t hold water, neither will your theories.

  12. “Apparently it’s hard to dig and text at the same time.”
    That’s good. A friend of mine took a leave from work to take a contract teaching position at a community college. We had long discussions about the students who were content to sit in class all day and text. They oftened complained later that they didn’t understand the material (with little sympathy from my friend).

  13. The only thing scarier than that article were the comments by “originalemily”. That a person claiming to be a 65-year-olf grandmother can claim tying shoes is not an essential skill, or compare mechanical competency with a spinning wheel, well, that’s really scary.
    As for the girls and camping – “and all the stuff that comes with” – don’t you think it may have been worthwhile teaching them the same independence you taught the boys? Maybe “all that stuff” wasn’t really necessary, and maybe that is a message girls could learn? I expect my soon-to-be-daughter will learn the same mechanical and hammer swinging skills my son will.

  15. Pussification of the American Male, George Carlin. Not mentioned by the article author nor the commenters at MacLeans, big surprise. Ms Renyolds almost finds a nut in the 5th paragraph but soon goes off the rails.

  16. This is the direct result of the educational system’s refusal to “stream” kids because not being in the academic stream might be injurious to the kids’ self-esteem. So, 25 years ago, we pushed all kids into the history/English/Literature/French/geography/math/psychology courses and nixed the hands-on courses, like typing/mechanics/carpentry.
    Of course, what happened was the kids who weren’t in the least academic ended up acting up and disrupting, on a continual basis, the learning of the other students. Hey, if you’re not academically inclined, you don’t want to look stupid, so you either become the class clown/s or the least co-operative student/s in the class. Either way, these kids derail real learning in most of our classrooms today.
    Then, the ultimate result is no skilled labour. I’m figuring that’s why windows and other lethal debris are falling off buildings in downtown Toronto — and probably all over the country.
    You’re right, Kate. That rig the guy is riding with a team of horses may be the only safe way to travel when our “mechanics” are all mechanically/motor skills-challenged.
    Kyrie eleison.

  17. Well timed post!
    I just helped my teenaged son (I have 2 such critters) buy a 1980 Honda CM400 for a few hundred bucks. He won’t be able to ride it until next spring when he both has his license and the snow is gone. But during the winter I will be walking him through a rebuild or two.
    I didn’t get my first bike (RD350 Yamaha) until I was much older than he is, but I rebuilt my dad’s VW engine when I was younger than he is now – without any help. I keep throwing that in the boys’ faces 🙂
    But they are good, capable and curious kids. A few weeks ago they both helped me build a storage loft in the garage with 2×6, 2×4, 5/8 ply and cable ropes with turnbuckles and a pulley system. They did 90% of the work, I just supervised and directed. One said that he felt like a pioneer.
    And before that they helped me repair the garage door, replacing the rotted bottom row of panels with a single piece aluminum and foam panel given to me by a friend, that had to be shaped and sized to fit. Working with garage doors is harder than I thought, but we got ‘er done.
    Men doing this kind of stuff is, to me, a necessary “life skill”. Just like swimming or bike riding, reading, writing, grocery shopping and basic cooking.

  18. And I still have a tube tester and a stock of tubes stashed away in the crawl space in case anyone still has an old Sylvania TV in need of a repair.

  19. Men doing this kind of stuff is, to me, a necessary “life skill”. Just like swimming or bike riding, reading, writing, grocery shopping and basic cooking.
    ~Ken Finney
    It’s good bonding too.
    Unfortunately, many families don’t have men to teach these skills to the young men because the womenfolk embraced feminism and decided husbands were unnecessary.
    As for the girls and camping – “and all the stuff that comes with” – don’t you think it may have been worthwhile teaching them the same independence you taught the boys?
    ~the rat
    Sure.
    That’s what the Girl Guides are for.
    Advocating that girls join the Boy Scouts is destructive of a fine institution for boys.
    If you want an institution that teaches independence, team work, and problem solving, coupled with a co-ed atmosphere that’s better than the Scouts or Guides then Cadets is my recommendation.

  20. My eldest in college who is rooming with 3 other girls in an apartment on campus says no-one can
    -clean the bathroom properly
    -know how to use a knife to chop veggies, let alone cook a soup from scratch
    -clean the stove or oven properly (it’s called elbow grease for a reason!)
    -make a knot in a thread to sew on a button properly, or hem pants
    -have ever seen a Philips screwdriver let alone use one

  21. Oz >
    “A generation of emos, texters and first person shooter video gamers.
    Is there anything productive they can do?”
    Heh heh…too right!
    They do now make the controls in US tanks very similar to Sony Playstation game paddles now. The young soldiers are naturals. I’m guessing allot of military hardware these days simulates a basement easy chair and game boy controls.

  22. I blame the parents and the education system…
    A while back, a fella decided his kid (17) needed to learn to shoot, to become a hunting buddy to establish a bond with his kid.
    A profesional (MD), he reverted to form and rather than doing the coaching himself brought the kid to me. Fine.
    Okay….I repair to my improvised range behind the barn with the kid, a single shot .22, with dad tagging along.
    I go through the process of dry firing, trigger control, sight picture etc. Fine.
    I instruct the kid how to load this formidible piece of ordinance and proceed to live fire.
    The kid is carefully proceeding to fire when at the last minute…Dad blurts out….wait for it…
    “CLOSE YOUR LEFT EYE!”
    It was a whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment….this is an MD!
    I stopped everything.
    I brought out a hammer, nail and board. reared the nail and directed dad to drive the nail.
    He obfiscated, but then relented and confidently took the hammer and prepared to swing….at the last moment I barked …
    “CLOSE YOUR LEFT EYE!”
    Then I found an old ball and had us tossing it from one to the other…when dad got the ball I barked…
    “CLOSE YOUR LEFT EYE!”
    Then came the lesson…
    You are equiped with binocular vision (a built in range finder connected to an impressive ballistic computer)….why would you shut one eye and shut down the entire facility.
    “well you see that on television…I can’t see the sights with both eye open…that’s the way it’s done”.
    Among other things the kid is now a AA trap shooter. Dad takes credit for getting the kid a good coach….OOM CHEEWAWA…..
    WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT

  23. Oz, Rat, et al
    “Co-ed” at the age of 12 or 13 has the following problems. At least.
    Raging hormones.
    Two latrines to be dug.
    A female leader MUST be present. So, assuming my wife isn’t the female leader, someone else’s wife is. Rumors can quickly start, which is detrimental to everyone’s morale.
    Did I mention raging hormones?
    BTW, we can see how well the co-ed thing is working by Googling Col. Bernard Ouellette.

  24. Part of it is certainly cultural but that isn’t the whole story.
    Quality and price of the technology is also key. You used to have to fix things because they broke down all the time. People repaired things because they broke more often. Now, the tech is so good stuff rarely breaks. When it does, the cost of items is such that it is usually cheaper to replace than fix. That’s if you can fix it all given that everything is computerized and usually built to frustrate repair.
    There’s also markets in everything now. When I re-did all my electronics I had planned to do everything myself but found a guy who sourced everything for 60% of what I would have paid for it and he set it up in a tenth of the time it would have taken me. Heck, the guy next door to me pays a company a few buck a week to clean dog crap off his lawn.

  25. Patrick B
    reasons for that.
    Prior to WW2, europe imported most of the machine tools andmachine from the US–the world leaders.
    Events cut off that supply and inspired a crash programme to training tool and die makers…then post war these skills were in a surplus whereas in North America a rundown..created a demand…
    Funny (queer not haha) that.
    Knight 99
    Good point but, for the infantry or pilots this is counter productive….these kid’s skills are based on 2 dimensional vision…not the 3 dimensions of reality….it is sorta like closing your left eye…
    This why MS Flight Simulator(reg) does not produce competant pilots.

  27. I’m not sure it was a good idea to let girls into boy scouts, it seems boys are not allowed into girls scouts, but that is done. My point is that girls are not nearly the problem some people make them out to be. I have worked with girls in sports for years and they can be a tough minded, as driven as boys. Of course there are differences. Still, they need the chance.

  29. On the other hand my friends there’s a whole segment of kids that are having a riot building robots, hacking their import cars, and generally making stuff.
    I think we’ll be just fine, as soon as we de-fang the law profession. Shop class will make a quick return as soon as Mummy can’t sue the school and win the freakin’ lottery because little Johnny got a sliver.

  30. How many of us grew up in houses built, added onto, renovated, etc., by our dads? Dads who weren’t carpenters, just regular guys who had to do it because they couldn’t afford professionals. (He was always telling me he wasn’t a carpenter…)
    I picked up a lot of stuff by osmosis, still surprises me sometimes, since I seem to remember just standing around handing him stuff and wishing I was playing with my friends.

  31. @ Phantom: Delighted to hear that…
    My Gr 12 shop project in high school was a 0.45 calibre muzzle loader, taught by an Aussie who spent many hours as a young lad rabbit hunting.
    It can still hit a golf ball at a 100 yards, sighted in properly.
    I look forward to the day when high schools are turning out more guns than the ones that come across the border!
    @ sasquatch: great story
    CLOSE YOUR LEFT EYE!
    still laughing….
    Cheers
    Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  32. A generation of emos, texters and first person shooter video gamers.
    Is there anything productive they can do?
    And those are the survivors who weren’t aborted…
    When training new oilfield drivers (mostly young guys)I always (sarcastically) tell them to slow down going by houses close to the sideroads we regularly travel on. It’s so much more satisfying to run over kids slowly…

  34. slaw:
    “Part of it is certainly cultural but that isn’t the whole story.
    Quality and price of the technology is also key.”
    Except that a lot stuff that is thrown out isn’t broke – it just needs to be cleaned/maintained. I wonder how much stuff has been thrown away because the consumer can’t figure out how to use it.

  35. I remember about 30 years ago when I was living in the Chilicotin in south central BC.It was a fairly rural existence with a two hundred mile dirt highway to the nearest urban centre that was still a ‘We can get it for Thursday’ freight order type of arrangement.
    We had a young couple,(college kids)that moved into a neighbour’s place for the winter and wanted to try the ‘back to the land’ scenario before they got married in the spring and headed back south.
    Michael and Susan were their names and were a very amiable couple and good fun to have around.
    Michael however had one major problem…he’d lost an eye in a bungie cord accident while tying down a tarp some years before and was painfully conscious of what he imagined was a glaring physial defect.
    It wasn’t.
    We were going to go hunting and all arrangements were made and I would pick him in my truck the next day.
    I arrived at their cabin early just as the sun was coming up only to find Susan a bit standoffish and preoccupied.She muttered something about Michael being down soon and went back to making grill cakes without another word.
    I coasted through one cup of coffee and was into my second when Michael finally came down the ladder from the loft and proceeded to go into the storage room without a word.
    At this point I was starting to wonder just what I had inadvertently walked in on and was considering making a graceful exit when Michael came back and proceeded to hover over by the cookstove and in the shadows of the loft ladder.
    Meanwhile his soon to be wife was noticabley showing more signs of agitation.
    Finally this low voice piped up from across the room to the tune of, “I shot the gun.”
    Now I didn’t quite catch the whole sentence as it was said in such a low and pitious manner that I was about to say excuse me when Susan bashed the spatula down on the stove in abject frustration while howling out…
    “Michael…if you think I’m going to marry a blind man then YOU’VE got another think coming!”
    At this point she turned to me and said that her beau-to-be had gone out the previous afternoon and had shot the loaner rifle and proceeded to nearly put his only eye up onto the eyepiece of the scope.
    The recoil took care of the rest and yes it wasn’t a pretty sight.
    As sad as it was, it took a great deal of self control not to find the humour in the incident.
    Michael was alright…he and Susan stayed ’till Sping and did get married when they got back home.

  36. All you have to do is copmpare civilizations now gone . How at the begining they where all craftsmen.Societal upgrading, moral principles. A vision of a future. By the end of thier run most where in the same jobs as thier parents & grandparents had For several generations by law. This meant guilds & shoddy work by law. A lot was forgotten with a lack of real students with talent not being allowed enterance.Thats why they ended up being barbarians again. Enforced statism.
    Closed shop with the scum at the top. Sound familuar?
    “Union Rep is just another name for highwayman.”

  37. A whole generation that will never experience the absolute joy of being able to “MacGyver-It”.
    Man as a species is taking steps backwards when common life skills such as tying shoe laces and using a hammer are lost.

  38. It gets even sadder at the college level when we see them producing accredited graduates who can’t think.

  39. Occam
    It seems to me that College concentrates on teaching what to think as opposed to how to think.
    Indoctrination rather then education.
    The Glengarian
    Nescessity is the mother of invention and the Mc Gyver way is the father.
    At various times I’ve used a nickle split in half as a half moon flywheel key on an outboard motor, a grease gun filled with diesel used to prime a dried out diesel system, turnbuckles and lock wire used to secure the floats on a C-185 after a destructive glassy water landing, a bed truck’s air system plumbed into a service rigs air system to compensate for a dead air compressor and duct tape to patch a nasty tear in the fabric wing of a C-120.
    In contrast some twenty something kid went rafting on the Bow River yesterday. Apparently he set off from Bowness (NW Calgary) around 2:oopm and called 911 from his cellphone around 10:00pm.
    He was lost and in need of rescue. Unsure of where he was it fell upon the authorities to figure out his rough vicinity from the cell tower that picked up his call.
    The Police helicopter with it’s FLIR camera was called upon to search while the Fire Department launched a rescue boat.
    Around midnight our hapless rafter was located on Poplar Island, a part of Fish Creek Provincial Park.
    At this point some trivia might be informative.
    Fish Creek Provincial Park is the largest Provincial Park that is wholly within a municipal boundary…in all of Canada.
    As it happens I live not 350 yds from where they picked this fool up. Poplar Island is separated, at this time of year, from the mainland by six inches of water thirty feet wide.

  41. Revnant Dream
    Too funny in the blackest humor sense…too true in a sad sense…
    http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/09/07/man-rescued-island-after-10-hour-raft-trip
    Unfortunately this isn’t even the worst stupid rafting story in Calgary this year.
    A few eeeks ago a pair of twentysomething gals launched a mile downstream from where this idiot landed.
    The helicopter found them about 15 miles east of here. Just shy of the Carsland weir and certain death.

  43. > that we simply don’t have enough new recruits
    > to replace an aging workforce
    Another BS pushed by immigration lawyer lobby.
    This is happening because we surrendered education polity to the deeply entrenched socialist mafia, who take money and cues from the special interest groups of all colours.
    Doubt that Kate had kids in public school. So she doesn’t know what they ‘learned’. I do. And that explains my nick. At home they learned times more and were crying for a first year because home learning was tough, whereas at school they watched TV with supply teachers most of the time.
    The rest of kids who still go to public system will graduate with no skills other than ‘submit to the bully’ and ‘conform to authority’. Puke.

  44. This is what happens when societies are civilized for a long time and become very comfortable. You don’t see useless leftists in developing or struggling countries. They have no place in these societies because they are expected to work and pull their own weight. They only exist later when those societies start developing social safety nets so that the useless types don’t starve to death. And when the uselesss leftists start to get power they want to change society to suit themselves so that they won’t feel inadequate or have their feelings hurt. In their minds it is ok to be mediochre and lack luster. Sad.

  45. As a contractor, I see a lot of this. Many new workers are pitfully unprepared for the effort we are expecting. Still, they do catch up in a hurry. Seeing them go from helpless puppy to confident and productive person is satisfying.
    Yes, our public education system does not prepare them, but I didn’t learn anything useful in school either. What I am today was crafted by the farm and my father.
    What we are seeing is a trend of more people who did not need to work for a living starting at a young age. My children got to drive a hammer, do wiring, pass me the flux for plumbing, use power tools.
    My middle daughter once spent days on her hands and knees scraping paint off a floor that a painting sub-contractor ruined. She knows how to handle a sharp SHARP scraper without destroying a laminate floor know, and knows that it was worth good money.
    All of these young people can learn these skills and they can learn them quickly. It is not the end of the world if they learn them a bit later in life.
    BTW, forbid phones as a condition of employment. I don’t want some nitwit scrambling to answer a ringing phone while engaged in a hazardous task. Also, we are paying them to work, not read their text messages.

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