Today I read about a survey which stated that 70% of UK 20-25 year olds couldn't sew on a button. Apparently a whole generation are defeated intellectually by a the workings of a needle and thread. There are even reports that many younger folks don't know where eggs come from or that butter is derived from milk from dairy cows.

I have even heard stories that young people are unaware that stars exist if taken out with of the city street light domain.

Today I even had a British Member of Parliament (MP) on the phone who appeared to be little dazed and confused about his communications setup for his office.

Whats going on? Is it an insidious downside to technology i.e. constant pointless distraction.

Apparently we now even have to warn the youngsters that drinking liquid nitrogen cocktails is a poor consumer choice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19866191

We've a generation still living at home because they can't afford not to. Mother still sews for them.
For 'reports'; read 'stories'. I remember in the 70s the laments that 'teenagers were hopeless'. They are in their 50s now and believing the same stories.
Stories about 'x percentage of teens' obviously includes 13 and 14 year olds who are only a few years past believing in Santa.
You'll be amazed at the astronomical knowledge of everyone if you start to ask. But is it really useful knowledge?
qjs

Sounds like they need a resurgance of the Scouting movement. Heck, don't we all?!

I dealt with younger troops during my time in the Army. I found routinely that they:

Could not sew, mainly buttons but simple darning.
Could not cook, other than microwave popcorn and stuff you could nuke
Did not know how to do laundry
Could not balance a checkbook
Knew next to nothing about simple auto maintenance

and my one favorite

Couldn't operate a lawn mower ("We had gardeners" she said)

No stories, personal observations. But to make y'all feel better, if they were my troops, they were shown how to do some of the stuff I classify as routine living.

When I was in had a Bud whose Mom was Japanese.He knew 1001 ways to cook ramen and a lot of it was downright gourmet.

I have to be careful when evaluating others skills. Frequently they have skills in areas that I do not even know exist.

People are just as smart as ever and they learn the skills they need to function in their perceived environment. Sewing on buttons just isn't one of those skills.

Nomad

I've always thought that Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was the cautionary tale we should be paying the most attention to, not 1984.


I couldn't agree more. Participation in a well run Scouting program could address most of this. Although, even the Scouts have adopted "badge magic" to eliminate the need for sewing badges on .

Denis,

TOO funny, the first time I saw that "badge magic" I thought "what the HE&&", this is so the PARENTS dont have to know how to sew. Personally, I just used it too position the badge before I hand sewed it. That way I did NOT need to pin it in positon.

Ironwood

My kids have fantastic skills with computers and tech gadgets but if we lose power they are dead in the water. I feel so old, maybe I am , when I tell them about life without a microwave, cable, cell phones and how great pong and coleco football were.

But its the same for my folks and me, they are further behind the curve than I am yet they have skills I'd die for as they lived through the depression and the hard life of the 40's. My 86 y/o mom knows how to clean, cook, organize EVERYTHING and is like a walking farmers almanac when it comes to hints and such.

As for not being able to sew, Im sure they can google that!

Some time ago I saw a documentary about the Royal Marine Commandos and their basic training. The chief instructor made a point of it. He told the recruits that their buttons will get sewn on properly, their bed will be made meeting military standards, their laundry will be done and their room will be cleaned. The only difference might be that mom doesn´t do it anymore and cannot closed the door to hide the mess. They will be thought do all that.
Those recruits were between 17 and 24. So probably their moms really failed to teach those skills.
Ironically from the people in my generation the guys who served in the military or in emergency units where much better in those basic skills than even the women who actually expected to master basic household skills. The reason is quite simple. The guys had to acquire the skills and there was no mercy when they did not master them.

Badge magic. GRRR!! Teach them how to sew! Don't get me started on the elimination of the sash in Cubs and Scouts, which only makes the sewing harder- a complaint to which the answer always seems to be "badge magic!" GRR!!

Badge Magic????

I ran across a PhD in physics once that did not drive. He had a drivers license but actually driving was something he just could not bring himself to do so he usually rode a bike or made other arrangements.

Sewing and cooking are not skills that a lot of people find especially necessary these days so many have never learned them.

I can sew on a button, or patch a pack back together, or make some crude repairs but that is about the extent of my sewing skills. My wife has a sewing machine though and is fairly handy with it.

OTOH, I am able to cook most things without too much trouble, while my wife is mostly hopeless if she can't microwave it. However, I have slowly been teaching her how to broil steaks and fish in the toaster oven.

I have been doing laundry since I was about 12. I started with a wringer machine and two laundry tubs for rinsing in the basement.

Badge Magic is an adhesive like double-backed tape that can be used to afix badges to a uniform. They can be bought in pre-cut sheets matching the size & shape of the badges for various Scouting organizations.


I like the new uniform, especially for the Cubs. Maybe its partially my nostalgia (basically went back to the style I wore in the '80s ), but I think they just work better. And sewing the badges on the sleeves isn't too bad ... and heck if my mom had to do it for me, I figure its only fair for me to have to as well! And I do sew them ... badge magic seems like cheating to me .

Ahaha I could've used some "badge magic" back in the day...


I think the main reason no one knows how to sew a button is that they don't NEED to, generally speaking. Mass-produced clothing isn't the same quality it used to be; it's cheaply made, rarely has buttons (when was the last time you saw someone under 40 wearing a buttoned shirt or dress?) and by the time someone loses a button, the item of clothing is already falling apart and so a replacement is purchased.

That said, most of my wardrobe is from thrift stores and I've had some mildly-used shirts last up to ten years. Newer clothing? A couple of years if I'm lucky.

Best best is to learn to sew one's own clothing with quality material/thread; but who has the time to do so these days?

How is "Badge Magic" so different then the iron on patches that graced the knees of most of my jeans and chinos growing up?

I will admit that there seems to be a fundamental lack of basic living skills nowadays, but I'm something of a luddite to begin with. I have limited skill with a sewing machine, but I'm better with needle, thread, and thimble work. I have never sewn my own clothes. I can cook my own dinner, balance my own checkbook, change my own oil (prefer not to), and iron my own clothes (prefer to).

The catch is, I really didn't aquire most of these skills till my early 20's when I moved out on my own. Give somebody limited means and support, and they'll pick up life skills in a hurry. Going hungry is a great motivator.

I've sewn a few buttons on my work pants, for some reason the pants shrink until the button pops off then I have to sew it on.
But when it came to sewing on cub scout patches I just couldn't do it in a timely manor. I ended up paying the alteration station near work to do them since we had to alter the smallest shirt to shrink it down to my son's size anyway. I now have the most expensive cub scout shirt ever.

I can imagine a real old-timer reading this and commenting "Back in the day we had to make our own needles from bone and thread from sinew. Kids these days have it way too easy..."

You're a better parent than me. I taught my son to sew on his own badges so I wouldn't have to. I do our campfire blankets but he's responsible for his merit badges. I like the new shirts but he just can't manage the sewing on the sleeve.

I don't know about that ... teaching a child to do something is, generally speaking, better than doing it for them.

That said, my daughter has started sewing the crests on her campfire blanket with a little assistance.

Back to my previous Brave New World reference, I don't think it's as much that the clothes now can't be repaired but that we, as a society, have developed the attitude that we shouldn't bother mending things when we can just buy a new, inexpensive replacement items.

I've lost buttons and had tears develop in the seams of several inexpensive pieces of clothing, something I've attributed to the lower standard of quality you refer to. However, by fixing the item, rather than simply throwing it away, I've prolonged the usefulness of the items. These will likely never be items that last a lifetime ... but they will last much longer than their first failure.

This is something I've been challenged with for other things too. How often to I replace or throw out items that only require minor repairs or a little elbow-grease to remain useful?

For example, my kid's rabbit ate through his laptop charger's power cord so my first reaction was to buy a new one. They were pretty pricey so I made him wait while I shopped around and he ended up not being able to use his laptop for quite a while as I vacillated on what the best option was. In the end, after fixing something else with a similar problem, I just fixed the cord and he was back up and running. But why wasn't my first reaction to fix it? Why was I so eager to spend money on a replacement with out even considering repair as an option?

I edited too late. Missed the "so I wouldn't have to" part.

Are any of these sewing skills taught at School any more. I remember using a sewing machine at school to make a Kitchen Apron before everyone ventured into the home economics class.

They don't seem to be, as all we have now in the UK is the dumbed down pretense of an 'academic' basis for a universal Government regulated curriculum education for everyone.



This novel probably isn't on anyone's English literature reading list anymore just as with the 'Lord of the Flies'.

Which future beckons I wonder!

In a funny bit of timing, I lost a button on an otherwise fine shirt last night and had to fix it


I remember making a pair of shorts (or maybe they were supposed to be pants?) that didn't fit well at all . My skills certainly haven't improved since; I can do rudimentary repair work by hand but that's about it.

I know my son's school still has a home economics class, I recall him talking about some of the cooking classes. I am pretty sure there was (or will be) a sewing component too, but I'll have to double check that.


You may be right, but to be fair that wasn't the setting I read a Brave New World in (or most of the good/important books I've read in my life, for that matter).

Just checked my old schools published online newsletter to see if they are still teaching these home economic skills. Apparently they still are, which was a pleasant surprise.

Apparently they even had a School team which won a Design Engineering Elegance award for an Remote Operated Vehicle competition open to schools and Universities from around the world held by NASA at their Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston Texas.