Ron Moore wrote:
I always thought it was somewhat disgusting to see an open garage with
no workbench or tools of any kind in it. Just space for CARS! How
productive or creative can this person be? What are they going to do when
they retire? What skills are they teaching their kids?
When I was young, a garage full of tools and such was like a beacon in
the night. Had to look, ask questions, wanted to get to know the person and
try to learn. Nowadays, kids couldn't care less.
I have noticed that the more expensive the neighborhood, the less garage
creativity is visible.

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote:
It has always concerned me when the young amoung us are not taugh basic
skills such as how to change a tire, how to use a saw, how to...well
you get the idea...there are basic skills that one needs to deal with
the world we live in. Well this article shows what that lack of
training, due to whatever reason, means as they get older.

When I drive through a neighborhood, it is a rare garage that has
anything like a workshop within it anymore....a reflection of the lack
of interest or knowledge of the homeowner to work with their hands?

Do your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, the generation who
is succeeding us, have the basic skills that are needed in the world
today?

No. I was raised completely without basic carpentry or mechanical
skills, completely without knowledge of how nature worked, of how food
got to the table. It wasn't taught at home or at school. The joke
about the VCR blinking "12:00" in perpetuity seems sad to me. READ THE
DIRECTIONS! Figure it out. Fix it. My parents seem to think that
things operate (or don't) because of some malevolent force that's out
to ruin their day. "Why isn't this stupid thing working again!!" Uhh,
because you tossed out the directions without reading them, never
maintained it and now you can't or won't investigate the problem. I
could really go on a jag, but I feel like there's a huge lack of
reality to a lot of what's taught these days. We weren't given
real-life examples of how geometry or trig could be useful - much less
calculus. It's frustrating to be learning basic skills this late in
life, and I'm still a fairly young guy.

JP