12 Skills That Are Becoming Obsolete

There are certain skills that aren't taught in schools, that parents just handed down to children as they performed those tasks, like reading a map or changing a tire. But now kids don't see their parents do those things, for one reason or another, so they don't learn them, and they don't have to. But is that a good thing? I give my younger daughter a hard time about relying on GPS for navigation, but she manages to find her way around even where there's no wifi, since she didn't listen to me when I told her not to talk to strangers, either. We lament that the younger generation doesn't know how to write a check, but do they really need to?

Considerable has a list of 12 skills that young people no longer learn. I can do all these things, but a couple I just don't do anymore, because it's easier to hand off those tasks to professionals. Whether they actually matter is the real question. Sure, you can get through life without knowing how to sew or read cursive, but if you had those skills, you could have the custom curtains you otherwise couldn't afford, or read your father's old love letters.

(Image credit: Zirguezi)

What do you think of this list of obsolete skills? Check all that apply.









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I think you'd be surprised. You could probably get in and take right off. The only catch is if you learned on a hydraulic vs. cable clutch and you get in to the one you didn't learn on. It's sometimes tricky going back and forth between those.
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I haven't driven a manual transmission since I was 15 or so, so I doubt that I could do it again without re-learning. I have never balanced a print checkbook. And I learned the hard way about a year ago that I no longer know how to sew when I tried to add a patch to my karate uniform.
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A student approached me and asked for a stamp. He said that his professor, whom I know is not, shall we say, computer literate, insisted on receiving a self-addressed stamped envelope if he wanted the grade mailed in. The professor does not use email.
It took a bit of effort, but I found a stamp. I then had to teach the student how to address an envelope, as he apparently was unfamiliar with the task.
It was an astonishing meeting of two extreme ends of technological competence.
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Manual transmissions even in sports cars are becoming rare. I knew manuals were going to die out once Ferrari brought out an automatic because they said humans can't match the performance we can get out of the automatic. The two things that will put the final nails in the manual coffin are 1) engines needing more gears to get top performance, you can only row through so many gears before it gets stupid and 2) electric motors don't require gears.
I miss my manual only when I went to go for a drive.
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