hank Wrote:
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> We really can't
> expect the schools to take up the slack here, they
> already get too many demands to teach this or that
> for the hours they have in a day. Thus we wind up
> with people who are legally adult but can't change
> tire, or balance a checkbook, or any of a host of
> things I was taught before I was even a teenager!
To some degree it's also a case of changing technology. How often does anyone need to change a tire roadside anymore compared to circa 1958? I've never had to. I've only ever had three flats while driving, none in the past ten years. In all three cases I simply drove on the flat for some miles 'till I got someplace where I could get it properly fixed, with no damage ever done to wheel or tire. That's good modern materials--try doing that with 1950's stuff and you'd ruin both. Could I do a roadside swap if I had to? Sure, I pull the wheels at home often enough for jobs like brake pad changes/etc, but I'm not jacking a car up roadside (and risking collision/etc) unless as a last resort with no other option. On the other hand, yesteryear's tire-change expert probably wouldn't have been much good at replacing a failed CPU fan or swapping out a failed motherboard. People learn and maintain the skills they use.
How much was your wife able to do? My own wifey doesn't have the physical strength needed to lift a tire or spare or break the lugs loose. Knowledge or no knowledge, she just can't do it, even ignoring her preference in summer fashion being generally unsuited to such manual labor. Can't really even bend down to the ground effectively in a pencil skirt. Her most useful tool is her cellular telephone and the good roadside assistance we subscribe to.
As a matter of basic education, high-school style shop and home economics classes probably should be non-elective for everyone (useful stuff for daily living), and likewise the kind of driver training I received years ago in police academy was about what I felt should've been normal for all. Emergency stops, high-speed evasion, general awareness and maneuverability--all useful skills on the road.
