Sewing a skill to keep or to lose?

 As computerization continues formerly essential skills like sewing or cursive writing have perished. I can sew, but very badly and I do rely on my wife to sew if I need something repaired by a sewing machine. My daughter when she was learning to sew in school poked the needle threw her finger, and I suspect she swore. My biggest problem with sewing is getting the thread to push through its eye. The sewing machine can be even more intimidating and that is why I don’t use it.

That’s partly why a 2017 study published by The British Heart Foundation found that 57% of British people said that sewing is becoming a lost art. Half of the participants admitted they need their parents to help them mend something.

Many schools no longer offer home economics classes (renamed Family and Consumer Services in 1994, according to Business Insider), as boards have generally been following trends to concentrate more on standardized testing rather than hands-on skills.

Still, I believe it is incredibly useful to know how to sew, and since the pandemic, many American millennials have started learning this skill.

In the past few years, as the destructive qualities of fast fashion have become more public, and more young people are teaching themselves how to sew in order to maintain the style they want in a more sustainable way.

Skills we should keep or lose 4

 As computerization continues formerly essential skills like writing or being a human calculator have perished. It’s hard to get a bead on whether good grammar in writing is actually going extinct, or if op-ed writers just think it is.

I use Twitter now for some of my posts, but when it first came out, I did not use it because I could never get used to using only a few characters to get an idea out. I am not that smart or precise in my writing. Language is constantly evolving and therefore, so is grammar. An article published by Reader’s Digest discusses a few significant changes.

Twitter and cell phones, allow us to be lazy and use emojis and acronyms to get our message out. This has shortened many people’s written communication style. In the same line, as more people communicate over screens, extra letters may be added to certain words to add emphasis: “Mom, it’s fiiiiine.”  Adding the letters convey, to me at least, an attempt to be sarcastic or rude.

Many people do not identify themselves as many in my generation did. The use of more inclusive pronouns and descriptors such as the gender-neutral they/them — is becoming more and more common. Several grammar authorities including the Associated Press and the Chicago Manual of Style now recognize the singular “they” as the default pronoun over “he.”

In punctuation news, the misuse of the apostrophe — such as “its versus it’s” — has become more common than its proper use; exclamation marks are becoming a common courtesy; and using a period can make or break the tone of your messages.

While this may cause grammar purists to shake their heads in dismay, these “lang-mods” seem to be here to stay. Language is evolving and over time what we see as lazy, rude or impertinent will be seen as normal. Formal writing will still be needed to help keep things clear, but formal writing may be seen as the fine pint, and not read by many. I struggle with the new grammar and hope that It goes away, but I know it won’t.

Skills we should keep or lose 3

 As computerization continues formerly essential skills like writing or being a human calculator have perished. It’s hard to get a bead on whether cursive writing is actually going extinct, or if op-ed writers just think it is.

When I was learning to write, I spent many long hours in detention because my cursive writing was so bad and to improve it I spent hours practising under the watchful eye of my grade four teacher.

Reuters reports that in 2010, U.S. schools were no longer required to teach it as part of the education system’s Common Core Standards.

Generally, though, it is up to the individual state to decide if it wants to keep cursive writing as a part of its curriculum, and many have chosen to do so.

In an article published by the National Library of Medicine, cursive writing (as opposed to block printing) helps diagnose spatial and graphical learning problems and helps free up cognitive abilities so that the student can focus on other things, which is what psychology experts call automaticity.

It helps students develop motor skills, learn languages, and can stimulate what Johns Hopkins University calls “true learning” by reinforcing the lessons delivered in other mediums.

That said, the rise of email, digital notetaking and even e-signatures have limited the opportunities to ever show off your fancy penmanship.

A friend of mine who is a writer when we were talking about how we wrote said, “I love the white noise that the keys make when I am working on my computer, it soothes me and helps me focus my attention on my writing.” At the time I was debating between using a typewriter for writing or using a computer. I moved to the computer and never looked back. I take notes from time to time as guideposts to help me along my path, but I sometimes print and sometimes cursive write the notes. I can read cursive writing, but I have been told that some students because they are not teaching cursive writing, cannot read it. That is a shame. Many of my generation and older generations communicate via cursive writing. I want the skill kept so the younger generation does not lose contact with us because many of our stories are not passed orally, they are passed in journals and other writings.

Skills we should keep or drop 2

 As computerization continues formerly essential skills like switchboard operation or being a human calculator have perished.

With any change comes loss, and more than a few life skills society used to take for granted are falling by the wayside.

Continuing on the theme of what skills we should keep or drop, have you ever driven a stick shift? One of my first vehicles was a 49 Mercury Truck that had a stick shift and my wife drove a 59 Hillman Minx which also had a stick shift. We live in the city, and it became easier on the car to drive an automatic, but I miss driving a stick shift.

EPA data says that 35% of U.S. cars that were launched in the 1980 model year had manual transmissions. But, 40 years later, that number has dropped to about 1%.

With electric cars outselling those with manual transmissions in 2019, according to The New York Times, manuals may soon go the way of the dodo — at least in the States but that is a shame. A friend of mine has an electric car and it has power but for those who like the sound of power, revving the engine, dropping the clutch, and peeling out still have some appeal. With an electric car, you can still peel out, but there is no engine noise with it. I think the days of the stick shift are gone and will never come back, but I will miss those days.