Lost Skills

 

          Okay, so soon no one will be able to read the Constitution – or for that matter, sign their name – since cursive is no longer being taught.

          And I wonder if in a few years anyone will be able to compose a simple paragraph without help, now with all those bots eager to pitch in.

          Maybe it doesn’t matter that the ability to read a sewing pattern and create something to wear is dying.

          Or that more and more people have palace-like kitchens, all quartz and stainless steel, with counters long enough to set up pins and bowl a frame on, and yet Door Dash is their basic source of sustenance.

         

          And to be fair, I have no idea how to hitch up oxen to a yoke or churn butter.

          But I can’t seem to shake the realization that so many kids today can’t read a standard clock with a face and hands.

          Sitting cross-legged in yoga class, exercising my neck joints, I thought, “In a few years, how would an instructor describe the path for turning a head without using the phrase, ‘counter-clockwise’?”

          Could this be a problem for square dancers?

          Will people be able to tell someone which way to spin a screw? a jar lid? a wrench?

          And imagine - when that generation finally ages, physicians in geriatrics will have to come up with some other common thing for their patients to draw other than a clock face.