Basic knowledge

of course. but whats the equivalent for children these days? we used to build swings, dens, go-karts etc.. not saying we were all going to end up joiners and mechanics, but we were still learning as we were doing it.
Does there need to be an equivalent? I did a lot of that stuff too, but being honest tying a knot around a branch and a stick isn't really a valuable life skill that is hard to come by. Our parents probably thought things we did were a waste of time, and our grandparents would have thought a lot of the things their kids were doing were ridiculous.

Kids do woodwork at school, I don't think my kid's shitty attempts (and they are shitty) are any worse than mine when I was the same age tbh. I can do plenty of DIY around the house, given the sheer amount of youtube tutorials for all sorts of jobs now I probably try my hand at more than I would have been capable of a decade ago.

Plenty of them could make a website or program relatively complex applications though.
That's a good shout actually.
 


I'm often staggered by how common a lack of directional or navigational sense is. My two best mates both have degrees but one ended up in Hull trying to get home from Manchester (that big pesky sign that says A1M THE NORTH eh!) and another who despite having made the trip dosens of times still puts his sat nav on to get from Durham to Consett.

Baffling behaviour.
 
I suppose people in middle ages didn't need map reading. They never went anywhere and there was hardly any maps.
They also didn’t need to tell the time either because there were no schedules for anything.

Hells , I'm getting the impression you'd be a great help in a bad situation :) I mean it's not as if society is breaking down, Politics is breaking down and in fact we've been told the planet will probably be destroyed in 12 years. I'd argue it is more important than ever that kids have life skills.
But which life skills are they? I’d argue it’s not necessarily map reading, nor is it campfire cooking. Unless you think society is totally fucked, anyway. :)

thats not the point though. without sounding dramatic, there are little 'skills' and knowledge left that kids learn these days, as part of growing up, which helps them develop into adulthood. the likes of repairing bikes and cars, mending things, making things, playing out in general, finding their way around, remembering information and instructions on things, little snippets of knowledge like old wives tales, handy tips for around the house etc.. yes things change, needs change, but what is the equivalent these days that kids are clued up on? phones? playstations? i bet not many kids can take a phone to bits or repair a computer.
No, but I’d guess more of them can code than our generation, for instance.

I’d say that’s a bigger life skill nowadays than reading a map.

really? they learn that type of stuff away from school, in their own time, for fun?
When I studied GCSE IT in 95, it was basically how to use a word processor. Those were the life skills I needed back then. A level IT was how to design and build a Foxpro database, ffs.

They’re useless now, because technology has surpassed it. Kids will learn more in IT at the same age then I will probably ever know about IT.
 
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Peoples lack of geographical knowledge of the UK can be appalling. I work down south occasionally and while I dont expect people to know where Spennymoor, Bishop Auckland or even Durham are, I would expect most people to place Newcastle or Sunderland on a map.

Shocks me how many can be so off with it.
I have a scouse mate who lives in Australia now but years ago he used to travel around Britain as a racing driver and also loved a bit of football. He claims to have been to Roker Park back in the day but only a fortnight ago said Sunderland was on Tyneside :eek:. He wasn't joking either he genuinely thought Sunderland was on Tyneside.
 
They also didn’t need to tell the time either because there were no schedules for anything.


But which life skills are they? I’d argue it’s not necessarily map reading, nor is it campfire cooking. Unless you think society is totally fucked, anyway. :)


No, but I’d guess more of them can code than our generation, for instance.

I’d say that’s a bigger life skill nowadays than reading a map.


When I studied GCSE IT in 95, it was basically how to use a word processor. Those were the life skills I needed back then. A level IT was how to design and build a Foxpro database, ffs.

They’re useless now, because technology has surpassed it. Kids will learn more in IT at the same age then I will probably ever know about IT.
But isnt coding something that is quite specific to one industry, and one kind of job? How many kids are going to end up doing that for a living ?

This thread is about 'basic knowldedge' - stuff like using hand tools, fixing things around the house , being able to navigate a town or country side without the aid of technology, general basic knowledge that we would call common sense. Things that come in handy in general day to day life. The things that kids used to start learning at an early age when playing out, camping, helping dad fix the car spending a bit of time not staring at phone screen and listening, and communicating, with adults.
 
I have a scouse mate who lives in Australia now but years ago he used to travel around Britain as a racing driver and also loved a bit of football. He claims to have been to Roker Park back in the day but only a fortnight ago said Sunderland was on Tyneside :eek:. He wasn't joking either he genuinely thought Sunderland was on Tyneside.
That’s an easy mistake to make thought from an outsider .
 
Now I don’t claim to be any sort of genius on the topic of maths, but surely this takes the piss. Last week I was talking to a lass at work who reckoned her boyfriend thinks she’s thick because she couldn’t work out how long it would take to travel 60 miles at 60mph. Naturally, I agreed with her boyfriend that she is indeed thick as the answer is clearly 1 hour (60/60=1), simple yes? Wrong, this was an impossible thing to explain to her and she couldn’t get it out of her head that it took her about 45 minutes to get from Peterlee to Barnard Castle which is 30 odd miles so how can it only take an hour to do 60 miles :rolleyes:
After spending far longer than intended trying to explain the basic rules of arithmetic, I ring my mate who is also on shift to confirm I’m right as I’m starting to doubt myself. I put the same question to him and he replies ‘well it takes me about an hour and a half to get from here to Newcastle’. :eek: I put the phone down.

Neither of them knew the dates of the First World War either. Surely this is basic stuff or is this just how it is now?

without trying to defend them on a very basic arithmetic question. If they are going on practical experience as unless on a straight road without any obstructions / hazards it is impossible to travel 60 miles at 60 miles per hour.
they are probable judging it from start of journey to end, which of course builds up speed and slows to stop.

However not being able to understand that the question is purely on theory / mathematical, they both deserve have more points docked
 
thats not the point though. without sounding dramatic, there are little 'skills' and knowledge left that kids learn these days, as part of growing up, which helps them develop into adulthood. the likes of repairing bikes and cars, mending things, making things, playing out in general, finding their way around, remembering information and instructions on things, little snippets of knowledge like old wives tales, handy tips for around the house etc.. yes things change, needs change, but what is the equivalent these days that kids are clued up on? phones? playstations? i bet not many kids can take a phone to bits or repair a computer.

They won't even have to learn to drive when the self-driving cars come on the scene in a big way. When I were a lad reaching 17 and learning how to drive was a teenage ambition!
 
I have a scouse mate who lives in Australia now but years ago he used to travel around Britain as a racing driver and also loved a bit of football. He claims to have been to Roker Park back in the day but only a fortnight ago said Sunderland was on Tyneside :eek:. He wasn't joking either he genuinely thought Sunderland was on Tyneside.
If he'd gone to Shields, Hebburn or Jarrow, he'd not have far to go to get to Roker even on a bad day
 
the need to retain any sort of information, knowledge or skills isn't as important now that we have every trivial piece of information at our fingertips.

i remember playing games like 'name the capital of so-and-so country' , or 'what is X-football clubs stadium called' or even knowing the route to places like certain campsites up the lakes or to my aunties in manchester, off the top of my head.

there is no need for this type of brain development anymore. people are getting thicker, in general. no doubt
This fella is now redundant :lol::lol:

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Arguably, technological advances mean they don’t need those skills anymore. In the same way that sailors don’t need to know how to use a sextant to calculate longitude* nowadays. What constitutes basic life skills changes relatively rapidly.

*(Or is it the other one?)

That's all well & good when the technology is working as they expect but then when it goes wrong they're useless where those of us who learned how to do things for ourselves just fall back on that & work round the problem until it's fixed.
 
But isnt coding something that is quite specific to one industry, and one kind of job? How many kids are going to end up doing that for a living ?

This thread is about 'basic knowldedge' - stuff like using hand tools, fixing things around the house , being able to navigate a town or country side without the aid of technology, general basic knowledge that we would call common sense. Things that come in handy in general day to day life. The things that kids used to start learning at an early age when playing out, camping, helping dad fix the car spending a bit of time not staring at phone screen and listening, and communicating, with adults.
Exactly. My point is that what constitutes basic knowledge changes over time.

Camping isn’t any more. Coding will become so more over time as it’s not just specific to one industry. It’s now in many things that we do.

That's all well & good when the technology is working as they expect but then when it goes wrong they're useless where those of us who learned how to do things for ourselves just fall back on that & work round the problem until it's fixed.
So exactly how often do you use a sextant then?
 
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They also didn’t need to tell the time either because there were no schedules for anything.


But which life skills are they? I’d argue it’s not necessarily map reading, nor is it campfire cooking. Unless you think society is totally fucked, anyway. :)


No, but I’d guess more of them can code than our generation, for instance.

I’d say that’s a bigger life skill nowadays than reading a map.


When I studied GCSE IT in 95, it was basically how to use a word processor. Those were the life skills I needed back then. A level IT was how to design and build a Foxpro database, ffs.

They’re useless now, because technology has surpassed it. Kids will learn more in IT at the same age then I will probably ever know about IT.
You would have loved IT in 1988. They were still teaching us about punched card readers when most people had Spectrums and 64s at home.
 
Exactly. My point is that what constitutes basic knowledge changes over time.

Camping isn’t any more. Coding will become so more over time as it’s not just specific to one industry. It’s now in many things that we do.


So exactly how often do you use a sextant then?

Not since 2008 when we had a 2 hour GPS outage during the tall ships race but I could again if I needed to ;).

Talking about coding though, when I first started in IT nearly everyone who worked with computers needed to be able to code at least a little bit but I'm currently working in an IT department of 16 people & only 2 of us can code & I'm the only 1 who can write code from scratch. The finance department pretty much runs on Excel VBA macros written about 10 years ago but not one of the finance staff can modify them when something changes.
 
Exactly. My point is that what constitutes basic knowledge changes over time.

Camping isn’t any more. Coding will become so more over time as it’s not just specific to one industry. It’s now in many things that we do.


So exactly how often do you use a sextant then?

My 13 year old nephew recently asked me if a pottery bowl was metallic. I'm a little torn because there is a need to ask such questions but on the face of it's mental this is basic...ultra cautious about blowing up the microwave I put it down to. That being said you are putting a lot of faith in technology, that's dangerous in my book... when you start seeing Google (not even the most popular search engine, 15-20 year ago) and now into AI & Space pioneering, well quite simply that's how Skynet started :)
 

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