Well that’s the problem fellas. For the last 40 years we’ve been eye-rolling and face-palming and just doing the bloody jobs ourselves. That is biting us square on the ass now and frankly…we deserve it.
We used to understand the importance of teaching the young ones and taking the extra time, effort and investment to do it. Now we expect to parachute kids into jobs we never trained them for and we get mad when they fail. A lot of that is on us…
No Filthie, I disagree, the kids today are not motivated to learn by example and an older tutor. I have offered many times to show a young boy or girl how to do a something and not interested. Another reason, the parents were not technically proficient to even change a light bulb, you think that is going to filter down to a child? Kids and adults today are not trained or coached with coping mechanisms to be patient while learning to turn a wrench or a screw driver. They have to have it NOW! Plus in school, kids are propagandized to go to college, learn a degree so you can make the six figures and wear a nice Armani suit or dress, be the boss tyrant of the unwashed maintenance man. No one is pushing to go to a trade school to actually learn a trade and learn to fix things. Most skills learned in one trade transfer to other trades…
I went to college. I could have learned the same stuff and been a better nurse than having to sit in the 80s version of DEI and woke, liberal crap and been richer, sooner because I was making money and very little college debt.
I agree with much of what Filthie wrote. We’ve allowed those in the education system far too much leeway in what is taught and how; the manner. Too many parents said nothing, didn’t object, when in the early the days of the current educational system was, and is, subverted by a liberal agenda.
Then again, I agree with what Steve wrote: ” The majority just do not have the mental capability to learn how to learn. ”
They’d rather watch a You Tube video or look to Reddit for an answer that they believe answers their question.
I do think this post will result in a ton of comments that I look forward to reading.
You guys had someone actually teach you how to fix shit? no one taught me squat about fixing things. I figured it out on my own as there simply was no other choice. When I was a kid if my bike broke and I did not fix it I was walking. Same thing later on with the motorcycle and even later with the heap-o-shit cars that fit my broke ass budget. All it takes is some basic curiosity of how shit goes together and how it works. Yea you fuck up some times, most times in fact. But that’s how you learn and never forget. That tiktoock twatt has obviously never been put in to a spot where she had to save her own ass.
Hog wash! You don’t just walk up on a complex microprocessor/electrical problems and start trouble shooting like a champ. You don’t start tuning carbs by magical intuition. If success as a mechanic were as simple as getting your hands dirty, I’d be giving you and Phil lessons. Why, If it was that easy we’d all be our own mechanics and you guys would be out of a job.
Think about what you’re saying, fellas: this isn’t a few random kids we’re talking about. This is endemic, generation wide for the most part. For that many kids, to all go off the rails at once? All of a sudden in one generation? A change like that means either an endemic problem with the parents or black magic is at work. Choose what works for you. For me… I see a lot of issues.
Kids are curious by nature. What changed? Welp… Look at what’s going on in the public schools. Everybody gets a prize!!! Everybody is unique and special! Except for when everyone is the same so that nobody feels bad about themselves…. Look at the drugs, the single parent families, the faggotry, the dismal academic achievement, the flakey teachers… I see a LOT of factors that will compromise our kids and render them ineffective morons.
More: adults expect kids to work harder and be more productive than ever before – on wages that haven’t risen since the 70’s. Up here in Canada we have young tradesmen and nurses living in their cars and hitting the food banks. Is it fair to expect hard work ethics and loyalty and initiative from them … when they’re literally getting paid half or less than what you made at their age?
There’s a helluva lot of stupid, brainless old stubfarts around too.
(Don’t say it Cederq, or I’ll have a hissy fit and storm off in a snit! Then you’ll ALL be sorry!!! 😂).
Glen, I never slept in my car… Truck, many of times.
If you throw a hissy fit, are you sliding back into a sub-stack thingy?
Nah. I am not going to pay someone to let them poast my scholarly opinions… 🙂
Cutting to the top here again fellas. There is a lotta truth in what all have said. Everyone one is different and can learn different things. Mechanical, academic scientific, if all could do it I would have played Major League Baseball and be famous.
Glad I’m me, jackass and all
Zactly DDM how I learned most of my fixes, not much on engines though except minor stuff
There are so many threads leading to this disaster. For one: Teachers. In the fifties and early sixties many were excellent. In college we joked about the mental midgets in the education department, with the dumbed down special math, science, etc courses for teachers.
Not all of us. I did a toilet repair once and my youngest daughter asked how I knew how to do it. Look at the problem, read directions if you have to.
Not long ago she did a toilet repair and let me know. Albeit she did watch a YouTube video on it for help
I disagree in part Filthie. I have tried to train a number of young folks. The majority just do not have the mental capability to learn how to learn. They are invariably products of the public school system with parents that failed to help them develop common sense, accountability, and a love of learning. Granted we are talking marine engineering. The few that were worth my time have gone on to have successful careers. That’s the only thing that has made mentoring worth it.
Sir,
I have had this sort of conversation with a most learned friend, a tool & die guy that began learning his trade at the feet of his grandfather, who was the village blacksmith (My friend is also a gifted gunsmith, by extension, who has built many championship IPSC guns in his day; he & I have also executed some nifty builds on my guns as well).
He tells me that he stopped taking on apprentices when it became clear that the students no longer had that easy, intuitive familiarity with machines that you find with farm boys, or the sons of mechanics.
These kids had all the schooling in the world, but no practical experience that comes from the kinds of maintenance work around the house we all grew up with.
This made them very poor students, and a millwright without this kind of baseline knowledge is not very good at diagnosing and resolving odd problems.
We have determined that this lack of innate understanding is in part the result of parents (themselves shoved into university by their parents in search of greater opportunities), having liberal arts degrees and little to show for them, no longer being in a position to teach such practical skills to their children.
‘Calling the men’, rather than fixing it themselves as had been the norm in days of yore, became the way things were done (and this was reinforced in the media; though a fan of The Big Bang Theory, I cringed every time those smug motherfuckers on the Coast made fun of Penny’s family or her circumstances… Where the fuck do you think your food comes from, you liberal cunts? “Flyover country”? Really? Why don’t you fuck off somewhere? But I digress…).
This young lady seems to stand alone among her peers, having noticed something in her world that doesn’t compute and making even a minor attempt to understand it.
There is a scene in Gran Torino, where Clint and his neighbour are in his garage, and the kid expresses his amazement at all the stuff in that garage. Clint explains that, over fifty years, a man acquires this stuff a piece at a time organically.
The kid is dumbfounded by this. It is true, nevertheless.
Such is the case with the sort of understanding this young lady seems to lack. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people around to teach her these things, and the freedom one can experience through fixing something oneself is rapidly eroding…
She will be starving soon
Glenn. When are you firing up the thunderbox again?
Get offa Gab and fire up the blog again! We miiss ya
He did. It’s been up for about a month.
I don’t see that as a dumb question. She actually has given it some thought and is not afraid to ask. Too many people, yes, not just the young ones, are afraid to ask questions, because they get the “what a dumb question” response. Give her some credit for wanting to know.
My guess she is from a broken family with no man around to teach manly things.
She is the definition of ‘cum bucket’…. cute, fuckable, but not much more!
You are an asshole. You do all of your thinking with the small head on your body. Pitiful.
You didn’t say he wrong, however.
*was
That’s why he’s single.
@ Chutes Magoo
Sir:
you hit the nail square on the head
She’s not stupid for talking about the question. She’s thinking. Not well but that’s part of the poor education system that WE allowed to develop.
She’s an example of what her parents didn’t do well. She can learn if she survives long enough.
I hope Chutes Magoo’s children are far better at thinking and learned some useful skills. Your cum bucket comment is about somebody’s Daughter.
Somebody’s Daughter, ain’t that a Country and Western song popular today?
Amongst other things, it’s a song by Jackson Browne.
Oops, that’s Somebody’s Baby.
My apologies, sir.
As a retired maintenance manager who took care of a 1 million square foot pharmaceutical research facility overseeing a staff of about 60, I too have no idea how this bimbo can possibly remember to breathe.
This is strange. Blog article says 5 comments. When looking at comments, only one appears along with the window to post your own comment.
Even stranger, on TUAK blog, says 45 comments on the post of the 13th but none show when you go to look there, while the window to post comment is there.
Are there gremlins about?
Hitting the refresh (or reload page) should resolve this. I see the same issue, mostly on WP platform comments.
Terrapod, the comment count on the dashboard has a 15 comment count. I did refresh the blog page and purged the Caching. You might get a correct count. Not saying much this is word pressitute…
Emails to Joel tell me he cannot post, nor can he get the comments fixed. appears to be a WordPress issue but he doesn’t know how to fix it.
I think he needs help, but I don’t know how to fix his issue.
I noticed that at Jole’s page and was worried he’d kaboomed himself with the propane heater that was giving him fits. I ran into a similar problem with Blogger after a recent windows update. Could not respond to comments on my own blog. Had to go into my windows privacy and settings tab under the applications menu (top toolbar-right side) and select “custom” settings and allow 3rd party cookies. It’s some change google has done that is not playing nice with blogger. Perhaps it may be creating a conflict with WordPress too.
3rd Party Cookies are used for verification of a live person and other security crapola. My system is screwed down pretty tight, so I have to authorize them on a per-site or per-visit basis. Security, don’cha know!
Phil an me don’t seem to have that problem on this blog(WordPress) and The Vulgar Curmudgeon(Blogger)
Could be security/privacy settings as well
We need a Maintenance pro who can disabuse her from her repeated use of the work, “like.” STAT!
Yes, misuse and overuse of that word lowers someone’s IQ by 50%.
Like, learn to fucking speak.
…of the WORD “like.”
Not “work.”
I suck at proofreading my own writing.
With your permission I could proof read and edit your comments Dave… I do for a couple of guys their comments that are so misspelled or atrocious grammar I fix it to make sense
Fucking grammar nazi
Her generation will be passing legislation and teaching your kids/grandkids in less than 5 years.
Prepare accordingly.
They already are: AOC and co.
My dad could fix anything, I inherited a lot of those skills, they are both a blessing and a curse, you have learn when to give up and replace an item
BINGO. I”m of the same nature. The CURSE part is it’s EXPECTED that I can and WILL fix anything. Sadly, what I can’t fix are my utterly destroyed hands. Wear, tear and arthritis have rendered them while not quite useless, but when I DO use them, I pay the price. PAIN in SPADES for DAYS.
I have the damn X-Ray report to prove it. Does anyone _LISTEN_? NooooOOOoooOOO…. “Can you fix this? Hang this? OPEN this? INSTALL this?”
I can… but dammit….
Yeah… I have hands of GOLD. They are SOFT and MALLEABLE. DENT easily… malform easily…. fatigue and BREAK easily.
As to our curious young lady, it’s like anything else. Some of us have an innate talent as to figuring things out. Fixing things. A few tech courses or lessons and we can roll with it.
Others have brilliant MUSICAL talents. Others, MATHEMETICIANS. Surgeons, etc.
Some may have amazing talents that are never discovered… and some have talents for things that are utterly USELESS.
Who knows.
I’m just cheap
I was trained by the USAF to repair and maintain communications equipment. I became the “goto” guy for trouble shooting. I get out of the AF and do 8 years of communications troubleshooting and repair before I got drafted to the install team. The trick was I have a lot of the answers but not all of them. Those I did not know, I knew somebody that did that could talk me through it over the phone.
What I see here is a person that wasn’t given the opportunity to attempt to fix anything. Or to even fail at something.
I think Cederq and Filthy and others are correct. Yeah, that’s right all of youse guys are correct.
Just today, I had a young man in my woodworking store, that stated that he was thinking about starting to enter the woodworking hobby, but didn’t have a clue on how to start. I applauded his honesty and spent over an hour with him talking about beginners tools, beginner projects, etc.
The conversation always wandered back to his insistence that he didn’t want to “screw anything up”. The poor guy was caught up in that pervasive mindset of perfection. He was afraid to even start a project because he was afraid that he couldn’t do it perfectly. I blame helicopter parents for that thinking.
When I finally caught on to his stumbling block, I took a different tack. I looked him square in the eye and told him, “make the damn bench and get it done this weekend” “You have permission to build it”
You should have seen the look on his face; a flood of relief flowed across it. He looked like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
He left and I just know he is going to come back on Monday with pics of the project.
On behalf of some readers, keep us posted.
Respectfully, Steve, it is not just helicopter parents, it is the individual person that has let themself be conditioned by society to think perfection is the only true result. Which is a lie.
Well of course we are, Steve. This poast by our esteemed blog hosts is a case in point. The kid asks a silly question – and everyone jumps down her throat to laugh and mock. And you wonder why kids don’t learn anything from you? You’ve written that kid off without even giving her a chance.
The proper response to that kid is. “No, it isn’t easy. At first it is darn tough. It becomes easier with experience.”
We take our own training for granted. When we were kids we could save up and buy our own cars. The engines were built so we could work on them too. Today’s kids can’t afford insurance, never mind the car itself. Even if they could, everything is EFI and the wiring for a modern car is a veritable rat nest. Technicians are using proprietary tools and computers to diagnose problems. Today’s mechanics are actually techs. The world has changed and we have too. We throw those kids to the wolves and shrug when they get torn apart or we laugh.
My question to the mob is this: who’s going to look after you when you are elderly and cannot care for yourself? We are so effed.
I think it’s refreshing, a young person impressed by the skills of others and the self awareness to know what she doesn’t know. Socrates said a wise man knows what he doesn’t know. Contrast her with people who, in blissful ignorance, confidently make uninformed pronouncements on virtually any subject.
This. Also, she said she’s jealous of the ability to “fix anything”. Not contemptuous, like so many others. If she can just survive the indoctrination machine, she may go far.
These ‘things’ don’t get fixed by people who are expecting crazy Joe to ‘forgive’ them their education expenses.
How do we know how to fix everything we touch?
That’s my super-power! A combination of training, common sense, and critical thinking skills. A dash of luck doesn’t hurt sometimes.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Too stupid to know she’s stupid. We’re not going to make it are we….I mean people…society.
Look in the mirror Dan, I’ve been reading your Commets for some time.
The maintenance guys have skills and experience. She is blonde and has neither. Problem explained.
Apartment Maintenance almost 40 years…I can fix anything from a broken heart to a sunken battleship!
It is a curse someone constantly asking for help.
You sound like a guy I once knew. Said he could weld anything except the crack of dawn. I like that.
Agree with a lot of the above comments, wanted to add the fact that we have become a disposable nation. My Dad had a set of drills from the 50’s that you’d have to take apart every so often and clean and replace brushes. If I can find them (my Mom is acting a little weird about us going thru some of the stuff), I bet they still work or can be made to work. New drills? They stop working and you toss them and buy a new one. Same with everything else, too. We had the electronic control unit on our stove go bad. New part cost as much as a new stove, better to trash something that’s still 90% operational rather than fix it. I’m stubborn enough to keep trying to fix stuff, but that’s mostly me.
I taught both my kids the basics and they picked stuff up fast. But that’s the exception. I mentor new engineers at work and the two I’m currently working with act like they’ve never even picked up a wrench before. As engineers it’s not a requirement (in fact, the company gets made at me for my hands-on approach), but damn it – if we have to instruct others on how to do stuff then we should know how to do it ourselves! No one else seems to understand that.
And finally, that girl above is ripe for some hunky blue collar guy to wife up and start spitting out babies. If she’s asking the right questions, she can be taught the right answers.
My maintenance guy loves me. If it’s something I can’t fix, I make an educated guess and send pictures, especially if it’s a plumbing issue. But clearing drains, flapper valves on toilets, spackle and paint, I’m good.
I feel sorry for the girls of her generation- they have zero problem solving skills because those are taught by doing. And her parents might have had that skillset but didn’t pass it along because they wanted to be her friend and not her parent.
And those skills are no longer taught in school either.
You’re a keeper, little lady! You rock.
Keep on plugging along, watch over the Maintenance Guy’s shoulder, ask questions. You are willing to learn. Don’t be afraid to fail, and above all, LISTEN and learn!
I did it with my kids, with mixed results. Lord knows I tried to teach ’em, really I did. Some of it took, too, but most of it slid right off.
How do they know?
Two words: Man Skills.
Something that is in short supply these days.
Well in her case you need two brain cells that will function to start
My 2c on the matter of fixing things and how one gets motivated to do so.
The young lady is starting to ask the right questions, so there is hope there.
I grew up watching my grandad fix automobiles, first for a dealership then later in his own shop. Mind at age 5 and up, it was just observation, but the process and natural curiosity took root. My dad was handy too, but his job had him away from home 8 of 12 months a year in sporadic manner. Might be gone overseas for 3 months or longer, such was the life of a field engineer in the 50’s and 60’s.
As to myself, a grenaded VW engine forced me to become a mechanic in 1972, no car, no mobility and no way to get to work to earn $$. That is called “motivation”. Self taught but then one had the ability to think, see how things go together and read a good book – strangely called VW Repair for Dummies. And yes, behind my house I built a barn, and over 50 years have filled it with equipment, machinery and tools. All my kids had the opportunity to observe, learn and use some of it but only the daughter is fearless of diving into a mechanical problem and fixing it. Oldest son seems reticent to jump in, but when faced with inevitability, will do so. Youngest son went towards the software and computer side, but then that was his environment more so than for the other two. There is hope and mentoring is worth it no matter the success rate, something will stick.
I swear your kids and mine are cut from the same mold!
A mutual complement, the best kind.
Agree most strongly with Glen, Annie, and Midwest Chick amongst others…
This young lady exhibits great potential. She has exercised her ‘noticer’ even if expressed
awkwardly. Some exposure to life in a venue which inspires the development of some self
confidence would be her springboard. Given
a year with this young lady and she would be
unrecognizable in her verbiage, analysis, and having a fair grasp of the tools available to skin a cat. Yes folks, farm or ranch life…she could be and do great things. Soapweed
I grew up as the son of a cheap mechanical engineer. Dad had five kids and little money to splurge on new stuff. So it was make do or do without. We can all fix stuff because of this. Now I followed in his footsteps but screwed up with the Pretty Daughter. She is a mechanical engineer but graduated top of class and went to the dark side (read that as “became a lawyer”). I tried to interest her in fixing and building stuff but mother and mother-in-law just bought new.
MIL was also an educational administrator and single handily killed shop class in high school for the state of Illinois. After retiring she wrote state mandated Tech Plans for school districts freelance. Lots of Microsoft Word very little Woodworking. The idea was to turn the shop classrooms into computer centers.
Can’t have both you know.
I didn’t fight them as I was away working as a gun for hire engineer. Made good money but failed raising the kid as she has turned into a very smart non-critical thinker who soaks up the grievance industry party line. My fault for wanting harmony in the family versus a very nasty divorce. Ah, the roads not taken.
So to make amends to humanity, I instruct engineering students in how to be an engineer. Some kids get it and some don’t that book learning and hands on have to meet. To be successful at solving problems requires both. BTW, Sheldon pooing on Howard always pissed me off. I’ve known and worked with a lot of PHD’s who couldn’t poor water out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.
Just the other day, I went to my very learned finance guy and asked him if his 13 year old son would like to help me work on my truck doing a very simple repair. He told me that his son’s schedule was booked and that having the instruction and knowledge was valuable, he didn’t think that it was as important as his regular school work and sports. Left me kind of dumb founded. I don’t want to think where they will end up in a grid down situation.
Now all this my first hand conjecture but we few, we few men of the Busted Knuckle maybe the last of our kind in the good old USA.
Spin
I grew up watching, and eventually assisting my Pa as he wrenched on, over the years, his Triumph TR-4; ’66 Mustang; ’67 C10; and a couple of dirt bikes. As time went on, I learned a lot more by getting into it myself, and if I ran into an issue, I would ask somebody. Nobody volunteered. Factory manuals, certification courses and the like have added to and rounded out my skill set. Not bragging, but what it boils down to is, if it’s a machine, I can troubleshoot, repair and operate it.
I taught myself how to work silver after I learned how to cut stone; Didn’t have anyone around to learn from, but I already had a good idea of how to do it, having learned how to sweat copper pipe from an old plumber. Hands-on has always been the best teaching method for me.
-Kv
You took the right path. This past week I have removed an old vanity, re-routed the drains, traps and put in copper pipe to move the connection points to center from left side. SIL bought a vanity without understanding what was really needed for the space available, so I taught myself how to cut stone to shorten the top the 1/4 inch to make it fit. All this is by read the code, measure twice, figure out the process and learn to do it (over 50 years of course).
I learned everything with my library card. Welding, contracting/carpentry, milling and lathe work. bought the tools and basically trial and error.
I think almost anyone can be teachable, IF they want to learn.
Therein lies the secret.
The kids are alright. Sure, most don’t have the manual or technical skills we were taught but they are much more internet savvy than most older folks. And most youngsters don’t fall for internet hoaxes and conspiracies like so many of us old timers who weren’t raised online.
She’s jealous of those who don’t come from broken homes. I give her a little credit for realizing that there is a problem. I dragged both of my boys through every household, automotive, or lawn equipment repair job that came up and they loved it. I knew my work was complete one day when I got home from work and they were both at the house with the hood up on one of their cars, my rollaway out in the driveway, car parts all over a folding table, and hard at fixing whatever the problem was. I parked the truck and walked over and before I could even ask what the problem was my son looked up and said “Dad, go inside” and went back to work.
The dumbing down of the masses correlates with the increased prevalence of electronic devices.
Cell phones, TV and yes the internet make people stupid. Question should be “is this intentional?”
DMM, there’s a problem with complexity. Most stuff now uses ASICs, Application Specific Integrated Circuits. No more individual components, it’s all “black boxes” (IC’s) – even for most mechanical systems. Bad news. Most cannot fall back to basic principles/fundamentals if necessary. The Old Stuff will continue to run, the CNC machines will go dark even if there’s electricity.
Don’t even get me started with Creeping Featuritis in today’s machinery, I want a BASIC operating device and not something monitored by computer. Don’t get me wrong, I AM a Machine Controls guy with extensive design/build/troubleshoot experience on microprocessor-based systems, but I can tune an old car that has points and a coil. By ear. Experience!
I started in electronics at 12, by 16 I was into cars and other engines. I’d been fixing mechanical things for at least 10 years. I’d take it apart, figure out how it works, then attempt to fix it. Was not too successful at first, but I had lots of time and lots of broken stuff. We was poor, couldn’t afford much, so we would get castoff stuff from other people and fix it for ourselves.
Nowadays, since I have JOTMON experience out the wazzoo (and I’m 70…), I can darn near suss things out but don’t necessarily have the specific-tool items to fix them. Too little time left, not worth acquiring because my kids won’t know how to run a ‘scope nor a caliper nor a mike nor a torque wrench. Nor do they know squat about computers or programming, REAL programming.
Of course, I grew up with all this stuff… as most of us have done. Even you youngsters that are only 40 or so.
Boy-oh-boy, the next 5 years are gonna be spicy!!
Blond
Probably a Gen Z
Tits
Yea…the trifecta of derp.
My standard answer to these types of questions is “it’s F M”. (Fucking Magic!)
I’ve worked in the maintenance field for all of my adult life. Most of the stuff I know is self-taught. While far from an expert, my kids were constantly amazed at the things I could fix. One time our computer kept shutting down immediately upon start up. It was late on a weekend evening, so no way to get it repaired until Monday. So, I did what any hands-on guy would do. I took it apart, figuring that the power supply was the culprit. It was. I set the power supply on the table and began to remove the screws for the cover. My son pointed out that the sticker on the unit said, “No user serviceable parts inside”. I told him that didn’t apply to me and removed the cover. I discovered that the cooling fan was gummed up and not turning. I removed the fan, sprayed the shit out of it with WD-40 and reassembled the computer. Worked fine for months afterwards. My son asked me how I knew to do that. Much like the young lady in the video. I tried my best to explain my thought process to him, but it’s more of a feeling. Anyway, by all means, lets dump on this young lady for asking a question. Ridicule is always so helpful when trying to make someone understand a problem.
The thought process?
Give it a shot…it’s already broke….
I imagine it is a scary world for someone like her that has just realized the scope of the things she doesn’t know. I would be more than happy to give this lady the opportunity to learn how to learn. The thing is, you have to be able to learn every day because that is what it takes to do the job. You never really know what you will need to do until you are there, in the middle of it. But you have all of your experience to get you started. However, experience takes a lifetime to gather. I am in my 60’s and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fixing things. And to this day I still learn constantly. I have had lots of jobs in different trades and they all added to my base of knowledge. You have to start somewhere, and just admitting that you don’t know everything is a good start. I think this young lady may be on her way to learning, a lot. I’m rooting for her.
The wife and I are raising two grandsons. I got a gut full and said no more cell phones or video games as long as the sun’s shining. There’s always something that needs doing on the farm and their willing sometimes. Lol. But it gets done. And in the end they both realize that we’re trying to prepare them for the world and are grateful. Someone has to make use of the tools I’ve collected over the years
Backwoods Okie
I give her credit for asking the question and realizing there is a question to be asked.
I worked as a system tech in an elem school for a number of years and became good friends with the lead teacher for the ‘advanced’ classes (5th graders). She told me one of the things that troubled her most was that the majority of her students couldn’t use scissors properly – they didn’t have the fine finger motor control. This was something they should have developed earlier in life but didn’t; we presumed it was because they were pointing-clicking… They missed the development window and may never develop the skill.
There are almost always unintended consequences…
Good Luck to us All….
33 years in construction and never being able to afford to pay someone to work on my car or appliances. Nuff said
Well that’s the problem fellas. For the last 40 years we’ve been eye-rolling and face-palming and just doing the bloody jobs ourselves. That is biting us square on the ass now and frankly…we deserve it.
We used to understand the importance of teaching the young ones and taking the extra time, effort and investment to do it. Now we expect to parachute kids into jobs we never trained them for and we get mad when they fail. A lot of that is on us…
No Filthie, I disagree, the kids today are not motivated to learn by example and an older tutor. I have offered many times to show a young boy or girl how to do a something and not interested. Another reason, the parents were not technically proficient to even change a light bulb, you think that is going to filter down to a child? Kids and adults today are not trained or coached with coping mechanisms to be patient while learning to turn a wrench or a screw driver. They have to have it NOW! Plus in school, kids are propagandized to go to college, learn a degree so you can make the six figures and wear a nice Armani suit or dress, be the boss tyrant of the unwashed maintenance man. No one is pushing to go to a trade school to actually learn a trade and learn to fix things. Most skills learned in one trade transfer to other trades…
I went to college. I could have learned the same stuff and been a better nurse than having to sit in the 80s version of DEI and woke, liberal crap and been richer, sooner because I was making money and very little college debt.
I agree with much of what Filthie wrote. We’ve allowed those in the education system far too much leeway in what is taught and how; the manner. Too many parents said nothing, didn’t object, when in the early the days of the current educational system was, and is, subverted by a liberal agenda.
Then again, I agree with what Steve wrote: ” The majority just do not have the mental capability to learn how to learn. ”
They’d rather watch a You Tube video or look to Reddit for an answer that they believe answers their question.
I do think this post will result in a ton of comments that I look forward to reading.
You guys had someone actually teach you how to fix shit? no one taught me squat about fixing things. I figured it out on my own as there simply was no other choice. When I was a kid if my bike broke and I did not fix it I was walking. Same thing later on with the motorcycle and even later with the heap-o-shit cars that fit my broke ass budget. All it takes is some basic curiosity of how shit goes together and how it works. Yea you fuck up some times, most times in fact. But that’s how you learn and never forget. That tiktoock twatt has obviously never been put in to a spot where she had to save her own ass.
Hog wash! You don’t just walk up on a complex microprocessor/electrical problems and start trouble shooting like a champ. You don’t start tuning carbs by magical intuition. If success as a mechanic were as simple as getting your hands dirty, I’d be giving you and Phil lessons. Why, If it was that easy we’d all be our own mechanics and you guys would be out of a job.
Think about what you’re saying, fellas: this isn’t a few random kids we’re talking about. This is endemic, generation wide for the most part. For that many kids, to all go off the rails at once? All of a sudden in one generation? A change like that means either an endemic problem with the parents or black magic is at work. Choose what works for you. For me… I see a lot of issues.
Kids are curious by nature. What changed? Welp… Look at what’s going on in the public schools. Everybody gets a prize!!! Everybody is unique and special! Except for when everyone is the same so that nobody feels bad about themselves…. Look at the drugs, the single parent families, the faggotry, the dismal academic achievement, the flakey teachers… I see a LOT of factors that will compromise our kids and render them ineffective morons.
More: adults expect kids to work harder and be more productive than ever before – on wages that haven’t risen since the 70’s. Up here in Canada we have young tradesmen and nurses living in their cars and hitting the food banks. Is it fair to expect hard work ethics and loyalty and initiative from them … when they’re literally getting paid half or less than what you made at their age?
There’s a helluva lot of stupid, brainless old stubfarts around too.
(Don’t say it Cederq, or I’ll have a hissy fit and storm off in a snit! Then you’ll ALL be sorry!!! 😂).
Glen, I never slept in my car… Truck, many of times.
If you throw a hissy fit, are you sliding back into a sub-stack thingy?
Nah. I am not going to pay someone to let them poast my scholarly opinions… 🙂
Cutting to the top here again fellas. There is a lotta truth in what all have said. Everyone one is different and can learn different things. Mechanical, academic scientific, if all could do it I would have played Major League Baseball and be famous.
Glad I’m me, jackass and all
Zactly DDM how I learned most of my fixes, not much on engines though except minor stuff
There are so many threads leading to this disaster. For one: Teachers. In the fifties and early sixties many were excellent. In college we joked about the mental midgets in the education department, with the dumbed down special math, science, etc courses for teachers.
Not all of us. I did a toilet repair once and my youngest daughter asked how I knew how to do it. Look at the problem, read directions if you have to.
Not long ago she did a toilet repair and let me know. Albeit she did watch a YouTube video on it for help
I disagree in part Filthie. I have tried to train a number of young folks. The majority just do not have the mental capability to learn how to learn. They are invariably products of the public school system with parents that failed to help them develop common sense, accountability, and a love of learning. Granted we are talking marine engineering. The few that were worth my time have gone on to have successful careers. That’s the only thing that has made mentoring worth it.
Sir,
I have had this sort of conversation with a most learned friend, a tool & die guy that began learning his trade at the feet of his grandfather, who was the village blacksmith (My friend is also a gifted gunsmith, by extension, who has built many championship IPSC guns in his day; he & I have also executed some nifty builds on my guns as well).
He tells me that he stopped taking on apprentices when it became clear that the students no longer had that easy, intuitive familiarity with machines that you find with farm boys, or the sons of mechanics.
These kids had all the schooling in the world, but no practical experience that comes from the kinds of maintenance work around the house we all grew up with.
This made them very poor students, and a millwright without this kind of baseline knowledge is not very good at diagnosing and resolving odd problems.
We have determined that this lack of innate understanding is in part the result of parents (themselves shoved into university by their parents in search of greater opportunities), having liberal arts degrees and little to show for them, no longer being in a position to teach such practical skills to their children.
‘Calling the men’, rather than fixing it themselves as had been the norm in days of yore, became the way things were done (and this was reinforced in the media; though a fan of The Big Bang Theory, I cringed every time those smug motherfuckers on the Coast made fun of Penny’s family or her circumstances… Where the fuck do you think your food comes from, you liberal cunts? “Flyover country”? Really? Why don’t you fuck off somewhere? But I digress…).
This young lady seems to stand alone among her peers, having noticed something in her world that doesn’t compute and making even a minor attempt to understand it.
There is a scene in Gran Torino, where Clint and his neighbour are in his garage, and the kid expresses his amazement at all the stuff in that garage. Clint explains that, over fifty years, a man acquires this stuff a piece at a time organically.
The kid is dumbfounded by this. It is true, nevertheless.
Such is the case with the sort of understanding this young lady seems to lack. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people around to teach her these things, and the freedom one can experience through fixing something oneself is rapidly eroding…
She will be starving soon
Glenn. When are you firing up the thunderbox again?
Get offa Gab and fire up the blog again! We miiss ya
He did. It’s been up for about a month.
I don’t see that as a dumb question. She actually has given it some thought and is not afraid to ask. Too many people, yes, not just the young ones, are afraid to ask questions, because they get the “what a dumb question” response. Give her some credit for wanting to know.
My guess she is from a broken family with no man around to teach manly things.
She is the definition of ‘cum bucket’…. cute, fuckable, but not much more!
You are an asshole. You do all of your thinking with the small head on your body. Pitiful.
You didn’t say he wrong, however.
*was
That’s why he’s single.
@ Chutes Magoo
Sir:
you hit the nail square on the head
She’s not stupid for talking about the question. She’s thinking. Not well but that’s part of the poor education system that WE allowed to develop.
She’s an example of what her parents didn’t do well. She can learn if she survives long enough.
I hope Chutes Magoo’s children are far better at thinking and learned some useful skills. Your cum bucket comment is about somebody’s Daughter.
Somebody’s Daughter, ain’t that a Country and Western song popular today?
Amongst other things, it’s a song by Jackson Browne.
Oops, that’s Somebody’s Baby.
My apologies, sir.
As a retired maintenance manager who took care of a 1 million square foot pharmaceutical research facility overseeing a staff of about 60, I too have no idea how this bimbo can possibly remember to breathe.
This is strange. Blog article says 5 comments. When looking at comments, only one appears along with the window to post your own comment.
Even stranger, on TUAK blog, says 45 comments on the post of the 13th but none show when you go to look there, while the window to post comment is there.
Are there gremlins about?
Hitting the refresh (or reload page) should resolve this. I see the same issue, mostly on WP platform comments.
Terrapod, the comment count on the dashboard has a 15 comment count. I did refresh the blog page and purged the Caching. You might get a correct count. Not saying much this is word pressitute…
Emails to Joel tell me he cannot post, nor can he get the comments fixed. appears to be a WordPress issue but he doesn’t know how to fix it.
I think he needs help, but I don’t know how to fix his issue.
I noticed that at Jole’s page and was worried he’d kaboomed himself with the propane heater that was giving him fits. I ran into a similar problem with Blogger after a recent windows update. Could not respond to comments on my own blog. Had to go into my windows privacy and settings tab under the applications menu (top toolbar-right side) and select “custom” settings and allow 3rd party cookies. It’s some change google has done that is not playing nice with blogger. Perhaps it may be creating a conflict with WordPress too.
3rd Party Cookies are used for verification of a live person and other security crapola. My system is screwed down pretty tight, so I have to authorize them on a per-site or per-visit basis. Security, don’cha know!
Phil an me don’t seem to have that problem on this blog(WordPress) and The Vulgar Curmudgeon(Blogger)
Could be security/privacy settings as well
We need a Maintenance pro who can disabuse her from her repeated use of the work, “like.” STAT!
Yes, misuse and overuse of that word lowers someone’s IQ by 50%.
Like, learn to fucking speak.
…of the WORD “like.”
Not “work.”
I suck at proofreading my own writing.
With your permission I could proof read and edit your comments Dave… I do for a couple of guys their comments that are so misspelled or atrocious grammar I fix it to make sense
Fucking grammar nazi
Her generation will be passing legislation and teaching your kids/grandkids in less than 5 years.
Prepare accordingly.
They already are: AOC and co.
My dad could fix anything, I inherited a lot of those skills, they are both a blessing and a curse, you have learn when to give up and replace an item
BINGO. I”m of the same nature. The CURSE part is it’s EXPECTED that I can and WILL fix anything. Sadly, what I can’t fix are my utterly destroyed hands. Wear, tear and arthritis have rendered them while not quite useless, but when I DO use them, I pay the price. PAIN in SPADES for DAYS.
I have the damn X-Ray report to prove it. Does anyone _LISTEN_? NooooOOOoooOOO…. “Can you fix this? Hang this? OPEN this? INSTALL this?”
I can… but dammit….
Yeah… I have hands of GOLD. They are SOFT and MALLEABLE. DENT easily… malform easily…. fatigue and BREAK easily.
As to our curious young lady, it’s like anything else. Some of us have an innate talent as to figuring things out. Fixing things. A few tech courses or lessons and we can roll with it.
Others have brilliant MUSICAL talents. Others, MATHEMETICIANS. Surgeons, etc.
Some may have amazing talents that are never discovered… and some have talents for things that are utterly USELESS.
Who knows.
I’m just cheap
I was trained by the USAF to repair and maintain communications equipment. I became the “goto” guy for trouble shooting. I get out of the AF and do 8 years of communications troubleshooting and repair before I got drafted to the install team. The trick was I have a lot of the answers but not all of them. Those I did not know, I knew somebody that did that could talk me through it over the phone.
What I see here is a person that wasn’t given the opportunity to attempt to fix anything. Or to even fail at something.
I think Cederq and Filthy and others are correct. Yeah, that’s right all of youse guys are correct.
Just today, I had a young man in my woodworking store, that stated that he was thinking about starting to enter the woodworking hobby, but didn’t have a clue on how to start. I applauded his honesty and spent over an hour with him talking about beginners tools, beginner projects, etc.
The conversation always wandered back to his insistence that he didn’t want to “screw anything up”. The poor guy was caught up in that pervasive mindset of perfection. He was afraid to even start a project because he was afraid that he couldn’t do it perfectly. I blame helicopter parents for that thinking.
When I finally caught on to his stumbling block, I took a different tack. I looked him square in the eye and told him, “make the damn bench and get it done this weekend” “You have permission to build it”
You should have seen the look on his face; a flood of relief flowed across it. He looked like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
He left and I just know he is going to come back on Monday with pics of the project.
On behalf of some readers, keep us posted.
Respectfully, Steve, it is not just helicopter parents, it is the individual person that has let themself be conditioned by society to think perfection is the only true result. Which is a lie.
Well of course we are, Steve. This poast by our esteemed blog hosts is a case in point. The kid asks a silly question – and everyone jumps down her throat to laugh and mock. And you wonder why kids don’t learn anything from you? You’ve written that kid off without even giving her a chance.
The proper response to that kid is. “No, it isn’t easy. At first it is darn tough. It becomes easier with experience.”
We take our own training for granted. When we were kids we could save up and buy our own cars. The engines were built so we could work on them too. Today’s kids can’t afford insurance, never mind the car itself. Even if they could, everything is EFI and the wiring for a modern car is a veritable rat nest. Technicians are using proprietary tools and computers to diagnose problems. Today’s mechanics are actually techs. The world has changed and we have too. We throw those kids to the wolves and shrug when they get torn apart or we laugh.
My question to the mob is this: who’s going to look after you when you are elderly and cannot care for yourself? We are so effed.
I think it’s refreshing, a young person impressed by the skills of others and the self awareness to know what she doesn’t know. Socrates said a wise man knows what he doesn’t know. Contrast her with people who, in blissful ignorance, confidently make uninformed pronouncements on virtually any subject.
This. Also, she said she’s jealous of the ability to “fix anything”. Not contemptuous, like so many others. If she can just survive the indoctrination machine, she may go far.
These ‘things’ don’t get fixed by people who are expecting crazy Joe to ‘forgive’ them their education expenses.
How do we know how to fix everything we touch?
That’s my super-power! A combination of training, common sense, and critical thinking skills. A dash of luck doesn’t hurt sometimes.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
Too stupid to know she’s stupid. We’re not going to make it are we….I mean people…society.
Look in the mirror Dan, I’ve been reading your Commets for some time.
The maintenance guys have skills and experience. She is blonde and has neither. Problem explained.
Apartment Maintenance almost 40 years…I can fix anything from a broken heart to a sunken battleship!
It is a curse someone constantly asking for help.
You sound like a guy I once knew. Said he could weld anything except the crack of dawn. I like that.
Agree with a lot of the above comments, wanted to add the fact that we have become a disposable nation. My Dad had a set of drills from the 50’s that you’d have to take apart every so often and clean and replace brushes. If I can find them (my Mom is acting a little weird about us going thru some of the stuff), I bet they still work or can be made to work. New drills? They stop working and you toss them and buy a new one. Same with everything else, too. We had the electronic control unit on our stove go bad. New part cost as much as a new stove, better to trash something that’s still 90% operational rather than fix it. I’m stubborn enough to keep trying to fix stuff, but that’s mostly me.
I taught both my kids the basics and they picked stuff up fast. But that’s the exception. I mentor new engineers at work and the two I’m currently working with act like they’ve never even picked up a wrench before. As engineers it’s not a requirement (in fact, the company gets made at me for my hands-on approach), but damn it – if we have to instruct others on how to do stuff then we should know how to do it ourselves! No one else seems to understand that.
And finally, that girl above is ripe for some hunky blue collar guy to wife up and start spitting out babies. If she’s asking the right questions, she can be taught the right answers.
My maintenance guy loves me. If it’s something I can’t fix, I make an educated guess and send pictures, especially if it’s a plumbing issue. But clearing drains, flapper valves on toilets, spackle and paint, I’m good.
I feel sorry for the girls of her generation- they have zero problem solving skills because those are taught by doing. And her parents might have had that skillset but didn’t pass it along because they wanted to be her friend and not her parent.
And those skills are no longer taught in school either.
You’re a keeper, little lady! You rock.
Keep on plugging along, watch over the Maintenance Guy’s shoulder, ask questions. You are willing to learn. Don’t be afraid to fail, and above all, LISTEN and learn!
I did it with my kids, with mixed results. Lord knows I tried to teach ’em, really I did. Some of it took, too, but most of it slid right off.
How do they know?
Two words: Man Skills.
Something that is in short supply these days.
Well in her case you need two brain cells that will function to start
My 2c on the matter of fixing things and how one gets motivated to do so.
The young lady is starting to ask the right questions, so there is hope there.
I grew up watching my grandad fix automobiles, first for a dealership then later in his own shop. Mind at age 5 and up, it was just observation, but the process and natural curiosity took root. My dad was handy too, but his job had him away from home 8 of 12 months a year in sporadic manner. Might be gone overseas for 3 months or longer, such was the life of a field engineer in the 50’s and 60’s.
As to myself, a grenaded VW engine forced me to become a mechanic in 1972, no car, no mobility and no way to get to work to earn $$. That is called “motivation”. Self taught but then one had the ability to think, see how things go together and read a good book – strangely called VW Repair for Dummies. And yes, behind my house I built a barn, and over 50 years have filled it with equipment, machinery and tools. All my kids had the opportunity to observe, learn and use some of it but only the daughter is fearless of diving into a mechanical problem and fixing it. Oldest son seems reticent to jump in, but when faced with inevitability, will do so. Youngest son went towards the software and computer side, but then that was his environment more so than for the other two. There is hope and mentoring is worth it no matter the success rate, something will stick.
I swear your kids and mine are cut from the same mold!
A mutual complement, the best kind.
Agree most strongly with Glen, Annie, and Midwest Chick amongst others…
This young lady exhibits great potential. She has exercised her ‘noticer’ even if expressed
awkwardly. Some exposure to life in a venue which inspires the development of some self
confidence would be her springboard. Given
a year with this young lady and she would be
unrecognizable in her verbiage, analysis, and having a fair grasp of the tools available to skin a cat. Yes folks, farm or ranch life…she could be and do great things. Soapweed
I grew up as the son of a cheap mechanical engineer. Dad had five kids and little money to splurge on new stuff. So it was make do or do without. We can all fix stuff because of this. Now I followed in his footsteps but screwed up with the Pretty Daughter. She is a mechanical engineer but graduated top of class and went to the dark side (read that as “became a lawyer”). I tried to interest her in fixing and building stuff but mother and mother-in-law just bought new.
MIL was also an educational administrator and single handily killed shop class in high school for the state of Illinois. After retiring she wrote state mandated Tech Plans for school districts freelance. Lots of Microsoft Word very little Woodworking. The idea was to turn the shop classrooms into computer centers.
Can’t have both you know.
I didn’t fight them as I was away working as a gun for hire engineer. Made good money but failed raising the kid as she has turned into a very smart non-critical thinker who soaks up the grievance industry party line. My fault for wanting harmony in the family versus a very nasty divorce. Ah, the roads not taken.
So to make amends to humanity, I instruct engineering students in how to be an engineer. Some kids get it and some don’t that book learning and hands on have to meet. To be successful at solving problems requires both. BTW, Sheldon pooing on Howard always pissed me off. I’ve known and worked with a lot of PHD’s who couldn’t poor water out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.
Just the other day, I went to my very learned finance guy and asked him if his 13 year old son would like to help me work on my truck doing a very simple repair. He told me that his son’s schedule was booked and that having the instruction and knowledge was valuable, he didn’t think that it was as important as his regular school work and sports. Left me kind of dumb founded. I don’t want to think where they will end up in a grid down situation.
Now all this my first hand conjecture but we few, we few men of the Busted Knuckle maybe the last of our kind in the good old USA.
Spin
I grew up watching, and eventually assisting my Pa as he wrenched on, over the years, his Triumph TR-4; ’66 Mustang; ’67 C10; and a couple of dirt bikes. As time went on, I learned a lot more by getting into it myself, and if I ran into an issue, I would ask somebody. Nobody volunteered. Factory manuals, certification courses and the like have added to and rounded out my skill set. Not bragging, but what it boils down to is, if it’s a machine, I can troubleshoot, repair and operate it.
I taught myself how to work silver after I learned how to cut stone; Didn’t have anyone around to learn from, but I already had a good idea of how to do it, having learned how to sweat copper pipe from an old plumber. Hands-on has always been the best teaching method for me.
-Kv
You took the right path. This past week I have removed an old vanity, re-routed the drains, traps and put in copper pipe to move the connection points to center from left side. SIL bought a vanity without understanding what was really needed for the space available, so I taught myself how to cut stone to shorten the top the 1/4 inch to make it fit. All this is by read the code, measure twice, figure out the process and learn to do it (over 50 years of course).
I learned everything with my library card. Welding, contracting/carpentry, milling and lathe work. bought the tools and basically trial and error.
I think almost anyone can be teachable, IF they want to learn.
Therein lies the secret.
The kids are alright. Sure, most don’t have the manual or technical skills we were taught but they are much more internet savvy than most older folks. And most youngsters don’t fall for internet hoaxes and conspiracies like so many of us old timers who weren’t raised online.
She’s jealous of those who don’t come from broken homes. I give her a little credit for realizing that there is a problem. I dragged both of my boys through every household, automotive, or lawn equipment repair job that came up and they loved it. I knew my work was complete one day when I got home from work and they were both at the house with the hood up on one of their cars, my rollaway out in the driveway, car parts all over a folding table, and hard at fixing whatever the problem was. I parked the truck and walked over and before I could even ask what the problem was my son looked up and said “Dad, go inside” and went back to work.
The dumbing down of the masses correlates with the increased prevalence of electronic devices.
Cell phones, TV and yes the internet make people stupid. Question should be “is this intentional?”
DMM, there’s a problem with complexity. Most stuff now uses ASICs, Application Specific Integrated Circuits. No more individual components, it’s all “black boxes” (IC’s) – even for most mechanical systems. Bad news. Most cannot fall back to basic principles/fundamentals if necessary. The Old Stuff will continue to run, the CNC machines will go dark even if there’s electricity.
Don’t even get me started with Creeping Featuritis in today’s machinery, I want a BASIC operating device and not something monitored by computer. Don’t get me wrong, I AM a Machine Controls guy with extensive design/build/troubleshoot experience on microprocessor-based systems, but I can tune an old car that has points and a coil. By ear. Experience!
I started in electronics at 12, by 16 I was into cars and other engines. I’d been fixing mechanical things for at least 10 years. I’d take it apart, figure out how it works, then attempt to fix it. Was not too successful at first, but I had lots of time and lots of broken stuff. We was poor, couldn’t afford much, so we would get castoff stuff from other people and fix it for ourselves.
Nowadays, since I have JOTMON experience out the wazzoo (and I’m 70…), I can darn near suss things out but don’t necessarily have the specific-tool items to fix them. Too little time left, not worth acquiring because my kids won’t know how to run a ‘scope nor a caliper nor a mike nor a torque wrench. Nor do they know squat about computers or programming, REAL programming.
Of course, I grew up with all this stuff… as most of us have done. Even you youngsters that are only 40 or so.
Boy-oh-boy, the next 5 years are gonna be spicy!!
Blond
Probably a Gen Z
Tits
Yea…the trifecta of derp.
My standard answer to these types of questions is “it’s F M”. (Fucking Magic!)
I’ve worked in the maintenance field for all of my adult life. Most of the stuff I know is self-taught. While far from an expert, my kids were constantly amazed at the things I could fix. One time our computer kept shutting down immediately upon start up. It was late on a weekend evening, so no way to get it repaired until Monday. So, I did what any hands-on guy would do. I took it apart, figuring that the power supply was the culprit. It was. I set the power supply on the table and began to remove the screws for the cover. My son pointed out that the sticker on the unit said, “No user serviceable parts inside”. I told him that didn’t apply to me and removed the cover. I discovered that the cooling fan was gummed up and not turning. I removed the fan, sprayed the shit out of it with WD-40 and reassembled the computer. Worked fine for months afterwards. My son asked me how I knew to do that. Much like the young lady in the video. I tried my best to explain my thought process to him, but it’s more of a feeling. Anyway, by all means, lets dump on this young lady for asking a question. Ridicule is always so helpful when trying to make someone understand a problem.
The thought process?
Give it a shot…it’s already broke….
I imagine it is a scary world for someone like her that has just realized the scope of the things she doesn’t know. I would be more than happy to give this lady the opportunity to learn how to learn. The thing is, you have to be able to learn every day because that is what it takes to do the job. You never really know what you will need to do until you are there, in the middle of it. But you have all of your experience to get you started. However, experience takes a lifetime to gather. I am in my 60’s and I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fixing things. And to this day I still learn constantly. I have had lots of jobs in different trades and they all added to my base of knowledge. You have to start somewhere, and just admitting that you don’t know everything is a good start. I think this young lady may be on her way to learning, a lot. I’m rooting for her.
The wife and I are raising two grandsons. I got a gut full and said no more cell phones or video games as long as the sun’s shining. There’s always something that needs doing on the farm and their willing sometimes. Lol. But it gets done. And in the end they both realize that we’re trying to prepare them for the world and are grateful. Someone has to make use of the tools I’ve collected over the years
Backwoods Okie
I give her credit for asking the question and realizing there is a question to be asked.
I worked as a system tech in an elem school for a number of years and became good friends with the lead teacher for the ‘advanced’ classes (5th graders). She told me one of the things that troubled her most was that the majority of her students couldn’t use scissors properly – they didn’t have the fine finger motor control. This was something they should have developed earlier in life but didn’t; we presumed it was because they were pointing-clicking… They missed the development window and may never develop the skill.
There are almost always unintended consequences…
Good Luck to us All….
33 years in construction and never being able to afford to pay someone to work on my car or appliances. Nuff said