To worry about life now that young people's basic skills are so poor

[CurdinHenry]

They're taking on responsibility for such important things and you have to check everything they do because the ways of thinking that used to be taught and hammered home just aren't any more and their concentration is shot (never mind their incentive to work hard since they often won't be able to afford to move out of home regardless).

Not their fault, the fault of the education system and wider society.

(Scotland specific, maybe England is better)

Rubbish. The people I’m talking about are highly trained, intelligent and committed. Please back up your claims with evidence.

Yep. Bloody Gen X, we were sooooooo lazy. We also had square eyes and our Walkman was going to be what killed us, if wearing a Parka didn’t get us first!

As a teacher I have seen a massive decline in soft and social skills. Things like how to speak to people, what sort of language/behaviour is appropriate over different settings, basic manners, reciprocal turn taking etc. Many children now start school without these basics and school doesn't really teach them. So many parents request their DC shouldn't be asked to speak or read aloud in class as they have social anxiety.

Record low GCSE scores

Depends what life skills you mean, really. It's a bit of a nebulous term.
I've recently shown my young adult sons how to change the fuse in a plug. They had had no reason to know this before the kettle fused but, now they've been shown, they do know.
It's up to our generation to pass on those skills and if we don't do that, how will they learn? Are you expecting schools to cover every aspect of life in 6 hours per day? They're your kids for the remaining 18 hours so the onus is on you.

That’s a complete fabrication.

Another "kids these days" thread! Every generation in recorded history has thought that the younger generations were somehow misguided or incompetent.

What basic skills do you think young people are missing OP?

My ds is 17. He's a qualified pool life guard and a first aider. He's saving money to cover half his costs at university so his money management is reasonable..

I've taught him to do all the normal domestic stuff, the principles of nutrition etc as well as how to service a mountain bike (his main method of transport), mend a puncture etc. He knows how to do car basics - check tread depth, oil level, antifreeze, how to use jump leads and change a wheel.

He has 10 GCSE and is forecast As in Maths, Physics and DT A'levels. His grasp of cyber security is pretty impressive too.

He knows the basics of brick laying, slating, growing food and cider making and he's a reasonable shot in archery. He knows a lot more than I did when I left home.

Or, the world has moved on and “appropriate” changes with each new generation. I daresay my great great grandmother would think my daughter very inappropriate. In fact she is a smart, funny, kind, outspoken young person on the cusp of being an adult and ready to take on the world.

The whole “manners” thing makes me groan too. Most young people are age appropriately well mannered enough. They aren’t supposed to display debrett levels of decorum. My mother will opine frequently about ill mannered young people as she makes rude remarks and pushes past them in the supermarket.

Young people are flawed and have rough edges. The world will knock them off soon enough. That has happened since the dawn of time.

I don't recognise any of this and am not even sure what it means ...

May be a fair point but at 52, I cannot remember the last time I ever needed to change a fuse. The old days of fuses blowing regularly are long gone.

This is such a strange post. All young people have little to no basic skills gain? The young people I know clearly aren't on your radar. They are studying politics/business/maths at university and are socially adept.

Best not to amalgamate everyone of a certain age into one uniformly rubbish group

I just don't recognise the OP's description.

When I was growing up 45 years ago my mum did 100% of the cooking, cleaning, washing etc. Nothing wrong with my dad, that was just how it was. We had the TV on while we ate. My own boys made their own school packed lunches, helped with cleaning, know how to use the washing machine and now genuinely love helping me cook. We all eat together and talk, no TV, no phones. They are so much better prepared for adult life than I was.

I teach new graduates coming into investment banks. Most of them are frighteningly bright, hardworking and articulate. They "get" concepts that it took me 10 years of work to understand. They are a credit to their generation, despite having their formative years disrupted by COVID.

Of course there will always be families with little experience of education, with a single parent struggling to provide materially and socially for his/her kids. These are the families who need support so it's not self perpetuating. To get back to the social mobility we used to have. But spending money on the unemployed and single parents is never a vote winner ... so we don't.

I have three staff reporting in to me. Two of them are mid 20s and one is mid 40s. The younger ones are far more resilient and switched on than the older one. She causes me the most headaches and is paid the most (or she was until I got pay rises sorted for the younger ones!) so this is not my experience. I’m early 40s myself.

Nope, don't agree.

Some certainly, but generally not my experience.

That's exactly what I thought until the kettle stopped working and I thought I'd try the fuse before buying a new one. It's definitely not a regular event but did save us some money.

Ooh I suppose it makes a change for the ageist bullshit on here to be aimed at young people for a change

…twas ever thus, older people bitching about younger people...

Basic skills… like being able to make a clear coherent argument and provide supporting evidence upfront?

What's the factual evidence that young people as a whole's life skills are poor or at any time they were better than now? I remember at university 30 years ago stopping one of my peers from pouring an entire (small, but still) packet washing powder into a machine drawer and not many students I came across being able to cook as well as me, and I could cook about five different basic meals off the top of my head, I was hardly Delia Smith but I could feed myself and fairly inexpensively and nutritiously.

I find most Gen Zs I meet absolutely brilliant, though mostly in spite of the education system, not because of it.

Most people get there in the end unless there are severe additional needs.

There has always been plenty of ageism towards young people on here.

Maybe I'm old school, but basics such as please/thank you and other such etiquettes are appropriate and dare I say it expected in every generation.

The whole “manners” thing makes me groan too. Most young people are age appropriately well mannered enough. They aren’t supposed to display debrett levels of decorum. My mother will opine frequently about ill mannered young people as she makes rude remarks and pushes past them in the supermarket.
Young people are flawed and have rough edges. The world will knock them off soon enough. That has happened since the dawn of time.

This. I find most young people exceptionally polite and probably a bit too polite if anything, as they are so worried about something being filmed on social media and public shaming.

I spent all the primary school years teaching DDs to be polite but as soon as they got to secondary school I realised it's just as important to teach them about when it's ok to be, on the face of it, rude.

Everyone's taking this thread as a personal insult against their children.

I know what you mean OP, a lot of people are looking for anything to be offended about. I know of a situation where a manager told their staff that if they have anything to say/suggest to one staff member, it has to come via manager because that person kept getting offended so not direct communication about work related matters was allowed. That person left eventually and someone in their place is very similar eg when emails are sent out for everyone to tidy up their desks before inspections, this person is left out as it 'stresses them out' so they don't have to keep their desk tidy. This person can be really rude to their colleagues but everyone is walking around eggshells around them as they run to the manager about anything and everything, multiple times a day. It makes me so sad that such behaviour is allowed and endorsed. They were bullying one person at work and I was the only one to stand up for that person, management did nothing. Then this person had me as their next target so it's been fun.
In order to protect one snowflake, some managers choose to *issues off people who they know can handle stuff.

This person is very rude to colleagues but everyone is walking around eggshells around them as they run to the manager about anything and everything, multiple times a day. It makes me so sad that such behaviour is allowed and endorsed.

I can think of one sixty+ year old man who is like that at my workplace, it's not something which only applies to young people!