Common sense is not so common

 

Just over a century ago, schools and some youth organisations  routinely taught practical abilities that now today feel specialized. Home economics covered food, clothing, budgeting, and household management, while manual-training courses taught tool use and woodworking. Technology has made life easier, but it also made many once-routine skills optional, they were even taught by parents giving their children a leg up in the grand scheme of things in the vain hope that they learn a small but necessary skill, I’m not saying that this doesn’t  still happen, but sometimes I feel that the world is going backwards.

For example, losing a button once meant reaching for a needle and thread, not replacing the shirt. Sewing was taught through home economics for generations, and simple repairs helped clothing last longer. Today, plenty of people reach adulthood without learning this tiny fix, I’m one of them I have never learned this simple skill, but if I needed a simple button, I’d be screwed, I would go back to wearing a t-shirt, I used to work with someone who would and frequently did wear a shirt and bin it after two days he didn’t even own an iron!

The skill of knowing how to shorten pants, close a tear, or patch worn fabric could keep clothing useful for years. Household-arts programs taught garment construction and repair as practical skills. Modern wardrobes are easier to replace, making basic mending feel more like a hobby, how many times have you bought something at Primarni (look it up its slang) paid a couple of pounds and then thrown it away after a couple of times wearing it, that seems to be the way.

Sewing machines were once standard equipment in many homes, (I even bought my wife one, she only kept it for a few years before it was moved because of a lack of use) and students learned to operate them in school. This mattered when families made or altered more clothing themselves. The machines remain common, but using one is no longer an assumed household skill, I had a conversation with a group of people at work and surprisingly none of them owned a sewing machine, the older people of the group had used them before at  home and at school, but the younger people hadn’t even used one at school.

Home economics treated food preparation, sanitation, and nutrition as skills worth teaching systematically. Convenience foods and prepared meals have since reduced the need to build every dinner from raw ingredients. Cooking remains popular, but improvising a full meal from pantry staples is less automatic, I like to cook, I’m not saying I do anything special, but I do like to cook, after a crap day at work, choosing what I intend to cook and then preparing the meal certainly means for a stress-free evening, rather than me simply barking at people, because of my crap day amongst the living!

Following a simple recipe involves measurements, sequence, temperatures, timing, and terms such as simmer, fold, or knead. I quite like the process, granted I might rush at it from time to time (that’s just me) Those basics were embedded in household instruction a skill set I learnt as a child by my mother, she was sensible , Meal kits, prepared foods, and video tutorials can now guide beginners without requiring the same foundation, however I don’t think that is as much fun.

Bread baking once occupied a regular place in domestic life, although commercial bakeries gradually relieved households of the work. reporting has noted a decline in home baking. Managing yeast, kneading dough, and judging fermentation are now often treated as hobby skills. I remember as a child the number that there was a number of small independent bakeries throughout my hometown, the smell was sublime, but through the seventies one by one they disappeared, the one thing that the French do right is that there has to be a bakery in every town and village, I bought a bread maker which I use from time to time one for the bread but also for the smell  of the bread cooking, yum yum!

Home canning grew during World War I; it remained important through the 1930’s, and peaked during World War II before declining afterward. It let households preserve seasonal produce for later. Safe canning still requires tested methods because improper processing can create serious food-safety risks, it’s a skill that’s now used primarily in the United States and Canada from talking to friends within those two countries, we tend to put stuff in Jars, that’s one thing I don’t do!

During World War II, gardeners participated in planting gardens, supplying 40 percent of our nation's fresh vegetables. Gardening demanded knowledge of soil, planting, pests, watering, and harvest timing. Supermarkets made that knowledge less necessary, though home gardening never disappeared, I will be honest I’m not  a fan of gardening, a long story which you may never know could be a blog all by itself, watch this space!

Laundry once demanded more fabric knowledge because clothing was costly and washing technology was less forgiving. Household education included laundering, sanitation, and textile care. Modern detergents, machines, dry cleaners, and cheaper clothing reduced the pressure to master stain removal, I’m not totally useless its one of only two things that I don’t do at home, I’m totally happy doing all the other things in the house, but laundry it can be a bit like dark arts.

Before wrinkle-resistant fabrics, dryers, and casual dress codes became widespread, ironing was a regular household chore my brother loves doing his family’s accompanied by his album of the day. Household technology steadily reduced the work involved in clothing care. Plenty of people still own irons, but pressing different fabrics correctly is no longer universal knowledge, the other thing I don’t do , I never did it in the army, I swapped. I did peoples boots and they did my ironing I was good at cleaning boots they were good at ironing everybody was happy, however it was a skill I would have to learn eventually, I have done it, once or twice and I’m not adverse to it but it has to be serious for me to be involved!

Home economists made household budgeting a central part of practical education in the early twentieth century. Tracking income and expenses on paper made cash flow visible. Banking apps automate much of that work today, often hiding the mechanics behind everyday spending, I still like to keep track of my finances, those that have very little tend to track every penny, I’m not a miser, I just don’t want to be caught out and then panic because I have actually been caught out before , again it’s not perfect but I can but try.

Cursive was taught in schools for more than a century, then declined sharply after some muppet decided or rather emphasized keyboarding was the future and omitted cursive. By 2026, many schools are restoring it. The fact that there is a potential revival shows how quickly a once-standard classroom skill stopped being universal. Now  I love to write, however I have the handwriting of a Dr doing prescriptions, yes that bad, I write at every given opportunity but in fifty years it has never improved, I am so jealous of those whose hand writing is neat and tidy! It’s the one skill set I wish I had

When I was a child, I was in the Boys Brigade and I was taught map reading and how to use a compass, a skill set that proved very useful when I joined the army, now I can still read a map, but I bet I don’t remember how to use a compass (I would have a good go) travellers once planned routes with printed road and topographic maps. A paper map requires interpreting symbols, scale, direction, landmarks, and distance instead of following spoken instructions. GPS is faster, but the Ordnance Survey maps still teaches the underlying map-reading skills.

Using a compass requires understanding bearings, directions, map orientation, and magnetic declination. I bet the Boys Brigade and the Scouts still teach these techniques because electronic navigation can fail, especially in remote areas where batteries, devices, or signals become unreliable, technology pfft who needs it!

Something as simple as changing a tyre was long considered part of roadside self-reliance. The job requires stopping safely, setting the brake, finding the jack point, loosening nuts, raising the vehicle, and installing the spare. Roadside assistance helps, but the AA still recommends learning the process, mind you some cars don’t even come with a spare these days, how the hell was that allowed to happen?

Modern vehicles have tyre-pressure monitoring systems, but warning lights do not replace routine checks. Common sense advises checking every tyre, including the spare, at least monthly when cold. Many drivers now depend mainly on dashboard alerts or service appointments, I laugh when I hear of someone says, “but the car does everything, why didn’t it work”?

Manual gearboxes were once common enough that operating a clutch and changing gears were classed as ordinary driving skills. Their market share collapsed as automatics improved and spread. Many Car magazines have documented the decline, leaving gear stick driving to becoming increasingly niche.

School manual-training programs once put students in classrooms to learn wood and metal work. That meant becoming comfortable with saws, hammers, planes, measuring tools, and other equipment. Many students can now finish school without any knowledge of such courses,  ensuring the general public have no option but to leave small repairs to professionals.

A simple shelf or repair requires accurate measuring, marking, squaring, and cutting before pieces are joined. Early manual-training courses treated these abilities as general education, not advanced craftsmanship. Flat-pack furniture and cheap replacements have made basic woodworking less necessary, mind you I do like a bit of flat pack furniture, mainly for  my music collection!

Sharpening a knife properly takes practice and a consistent angle. It’s a skill  that if you use a whetstone to sharpen something it’s a skill set that depends heavily on muscle memory. Many home cooks now use pull-through sharpeners, replace inexpensive knives, or send good blades to professionals instead.

At school I joined the sailing club, it wasn’t a big club we usually ended up on one or two boats, but you do need a skill set to know how to tie a square knot, bowline, clove hitch, or sheet bend this has practical uses in many things including  boating, camping, hauling, and household work. Many youth organisation training programs still teach knot tying through hands-on challenges. For many children (or people under 20), tying anything beyond a shoelace is unfamiliar territory.

First aid was promoted as a public skill long before smartphone instructions existed. The St Johns ambulance ran training courses and  created excellent training courses in the early twentieth century and it has trained millions since. Immediate knowledge still matters because professional help is not always present in the first minutes, I have lost count how many serious incidents that I have been close to and that I was able to assist quite a few people at their time of need, I know of at least instance where I was able to save two people, one from a heart attack (that nearly killed me as the ambulance and the crew were stuck in traffic trying to get to us, that was the longest 40 minutes of my life thankfully there were two of us and we managed to keep him going until the ambulance arrived, he survived because of both of us and we didn’t even get a thank you from the miserable scroat, another incident happened when I had to jump from one Cherry picker to another when a worker had accidentally smashed a mirror at height and the mirror cut his jugular I was able to close the wound and get to the ground floor , I saw that gentleman quite often and he would often buy me a pint if he ever saw me and he even introduced me to his family “as the lad that saved my life” sadly he passed during covid, that was a scary incident, you wouldn’t be able to do it today because of all the safety procedures.

Now before anyone complains I have no idea where this blog popped up from, but as like the “Broken Promises” blog I do believe at my grand old age I seem to be maturing, who knew, stay safe and stay alive until the next one……………Toodles”