COMMON SKILLS ARE BECOMING A LOST ART

COMMON SKILLS ARE BECOMING A LOST ART

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Survival experts predict 75% of citizens would die in the first six months of a total shutdown of our nation. The potential causes are numerous but the consequences would be the same. Without a power source like coal, electricity, petroleum or natural gas there would be no cars, appliances, water, heat, electricity, phones, Internet or communication systems. Basic food items and electronic entertainment devices would soon not exist. The most elementary skills of growing food, hunting and preserving are mostly extinct for the average modern person. People would need to work together to meet their basic needs or die.

A serious problem in developed nations especially the USA is that our youngsters are no longer being taught the basic skills or necessary attitudes or habits to survive a more primitive lifestyle. Our youngsters know how to entertain themselves in electronic media but have little to no training in common activities like washing dishes, maintaining the car, washing windows or cleaning their own room. They know less about repairing machines, cooking or necessary survival skills.

In the United States being pampered is almost a universal condition for most children. Instant gratification, grade inflation, low expectations and standards have created a people ignorant of self-care and basic survival skills. These urbanized people will be a burden, not helpful in a national disaster. Children are given incessant positive reinforcement in school and at home for remembering facts from the discovery channel, negotiating the Internet and receive praise for reaching natural milestones. On top of that, they receive trophies for mastering the simplest athletic skills or displaying minimal effort. Of course they develop a false and elevated opinion of themselves.

Modern children have been deprived of working alongside their parents since both of the parents are usually too busy to teach them things. Many families no longer have meals together and hire other people to do inside and outdoor chores. Men used to build, maintain, repair and do other things around the home. The children cannot learn from their fathers to be handymen as the fathers have already shirked this responsibility. Their children are losing by never developing these traditional skills.

Modern mothers, like their husbands, have not transitioned from adolescence to be fulltime adult mothers. Rather they have retained self-centered teenage attributes such as socializing and maintaining their feminist notions of independence rather than interdependence. Cooking at home is close to passé. Women’s full emergence into the workplace has robbed their children of the quantity time necessary to train the children in homemaking arts, social, and moral values. The lack of specific training to complete a task means children have little opportunity to develop a strong work ethic, perseverance, ability to delay gratification in order to complete a major project. Currently a child working together with his parents to prepare a meal or complete a family project is a rarity.

Fathers are no better-immersing themselves in their careers, networking, politicking and working at home after putting in a full day of required hours at work. Any time the husband has left over is often consumed by recreational activities most often with business associates not with the family.

This increasing chasm between parents and their children’s interactions has had serious but unexpected consequences. Children arrogantly think they are usually smarter than their parents because they are excellent at navigating electronics. They have a skewed view of their own abilities.

Without the parental contact of doing things together the child is rarely exposed to their parents’ reservoir of knowledge in getting things done timely and efficiently. The parents see the child readily fails after doing something only once, and quits. If the parents give helpful hints to correct the child’s mistakes and he succeeds, the child experiences the parent’s vast knowledge first hand. His distorted arrogance transforms into a greater respect for adults in general.

This inflated attitude is not serving our youngsters well. Healthy children need to realize they need to continue to improve throughout their lives to develop and maintain the highest functioning level possible for them. This takes critical and honest assessment of the child’s performance in all areas. Being able to take criticism is essential for honing one’s effort in anything and everything.  Modern youngsters have to be taught common skills to build a solid foundation to excel in life. The millennials are a case in point of not having the social skills to be effective in producing rapid quality results.

Deficiencies will be magnified in a time of crisis: war, natural disaster, family tragedy or worldwide devastating catastrophe. Going back to the basics of living well is a significant asset for youngsters for surviving difficult times.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.