I see that the president, in a spirit of bipartisan compromise, is proposing this time round to toss a mere third of a trillion dollars into the Potomac and watch it float out to sea, all in the interests of what the Associated Press calls “jump-starting” jobs.
David Espo and Jim Kuhnhenn are using “jump-start” metaphorically. In fact, I would be interested to know whether Barack Obama has ever in his life jump-started anything in a non-metaphorical sense. Or whether Messrs Espo and Kuhnhenn have. In my (ahem) new book, I have a little section on how so much of our language has decayed from the practical to the metaphorical — a somewhat predictable by-product of an age which values six-and-a-half years of a leisurely Bachelor’s in Whatever Studies over the ability actually to do anything. So I was interested to see this piece from my pals at Maclean’s up in Canada on how our present generation is “mechanically challenged“:
Shop classes are all but a memory in most schools—a result of liability fears, budget cuts and an obsession with academics. Still, even in vocational high schools where shop classes endure, a skills decline is evident. One auto shop teacher says he’s teaching his Grade 12 students what, 10 years ago, he taught Grade Nines. “We would take apart a transmission, now I teach what it is.” Remarkably, most of his Grade 11 students arrive not knowing which way to turn a screwdriver to tighten a screw. If he introduces a nut threaded counterclockwise, they have trouble conceptualizing the need to turn the screwdriver the opposite way. That’s because, he says, “They are texting non-stop; they don’t care about anything else. It’s like they’re possessed.”
At home, spare time is no longer spent doing things like dismantling gadgets, building model airplanes or taking apart old appliances with dad; there’s no tinkering with cars, which are so computerized now you couldn’t tinker if you wanted to. A 2009 poll showed one-third of teens spend zero time per week doing anything hands-on at all.
Even if we avoid total societal collapse and/or an Iranian nuclear strike and so will not be required to build a rude dwelling in the wilds, in a post-prosperity America a lot of us will have to figure out how to make stuff last longer. Doesn’t sound like we’re up to it.
Beyond that, almost all the great transformative breakthroughs of the last half-millennium were made not by eminent scientists but by tinkerers. (Derb is very good on this stuff, so I hope he’ll take it from here.) But nobody tinkers any more, and we are ruled by thinkers. Who think the answer is to dump another third of a trillion bucks into trying to jump-start seized-up metaphors.
The last tinkerer-in-chief we had was Jimmy Carter, an avid woodworker who even kept a small shop in the White House (no neighbors to disturb with tools late at night, I suppose).
Sorry, but I don't count brush-clearer-in-chief W.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEver since Nancy Pelosi announced that "stimulus" is a dirty word that should no longer be used, I've been waiting to hear what the replacement will be. We now have it: the jump-starting jobs initiative. Will the political repartee never cease? It's a good thing for liberals that most Americans have the IQ of a gnat or we might catch on to their clever word games.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is bad politics to badmouth voters.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn a recent FoxNews poll, 82% of respondents (mostly American voters, presumably) blamed American voters for the state of the economy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAha! Precisely why the wife and I decided several years ago to buy a small homestead in a semi-rural area. We knew that in order to maintain the property, we would need tools and implements, and lots of them! I have two very young sons who will be taught from an early age how to use things like hammers, saws, rakes, tillers, chainsaws, etc. To my way of thinking, a man who doesn't own a muddy pair of boots and a host of tools is not man at all!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMechanics are passed down father to son far more than in-school. Guys learn what a transmission is out in the driveway from Dad or a neighbor. Like most of the problems of our schools, this is a symptom of the decline of the family and society.
Another thing to keep in mind, though, stuff doesn't break like it used to. In 1911 if you drove a car, you were a mechanic whether you wanted to be one or not (remember "They"). That's even less true now that it was thirty years ago. I learned the parts of a car by what went wrong with my '72 Dodge. My son doesn't know much about auto mechanics because he drives a '00 Subaru.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a good point. It was 6 years/184k miles before I ever had to take my last car (04 Impala) into a shop for something other than an oil change or tire rotation.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know plenty of guys when I went to school who had totally non-mechanically-inclined fathers, but excelled in shop class.
As Mark mentions, part of the problem is (with auto mechanics) you can hardly even change the oil in a newer car without putting it up on a lift or driving it over a pit. And, there's very little you can fix without a computer for diagnostics. I have had modern cars that needed constant attention - but I couldn't do anything about it in my driveway.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAlso you can't change your own oil in your driveway because of runoff, and you have to find some place to dispose of the used oil and the used filter legally -- anyway, that and the low ground clearance were two of the reasons I stopped.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood point. I had a 70 Maverick. I kept a screw driver in the glove compartment so I could adjust the idle speed screw--sometimes the idle speed got so slow the car would stall at lights or when parking. Finally got around to rebuilding the carburetor. My dad was not one to play with cars--he was a "drive 'em till the drop" sort of guy. So I learned from books! Didn't take auto shop in high school, because back then, girls just didn't do that sort of thing!
(I got in to learning about working on my car after someone I knew back then was murdered--her car had broken down at the side of the road. Between the cell phone and AAA, I worry a little less.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI bet Obama's never had a callous on his hands before. Do you think he can:
-hammer a nail without bending it?
-cut a 90 degree angle with only a square and a hand saw?
-change the oil in a car? Or easier, a lawn tractor?
-handle a backpack leafblower?
-fell a small tree?
-split a cord of wood?
-start a campfire?
-keep said campfire burning without burning down the forest around him?
-tell the difference between the call of a barred owl and a screech owl?
-plant a tree?
-dig a drainage ditch?
-till a vegetable garden?
-prune an apple tree?
-skin a buck, run a trot line? (ok, an old song reference..hee hee).
You get my point.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot that it means anything particular in a candidate, but there is one person out there who I'd bet the house could do all of the above - then run a very respectable half-marathon (WITHOUT making a big media deal about it).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor the person you mention, digging drainage ditches is more likely done by the fisherman of the family on a backhoe.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDigging a a DRAINAGE ditch does not usually entail the use of an excavator - unless maybe one is draining the parking lot at Solyndra Inc.
Oh wait, that is no longer necessary.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA bet a hundred bucks you can find Boy Scouts who can do those things. Heck, I think my youngest son (age 8, also in scouts) has done all or similar feats as part of scouting. We even cleaned a pheasant for a meal.
"-skin a buck, run a trot line?"
Coincidence. I just heard that song on the radio, not ten minutes ago.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe government makes much of "literacy." A few weeks ago, one of the FCC commissioners called for a program in news "literacy" as a way to protect newspapers. And then there is computer literacy. I propose, first, a program in shovel literacy so our chief executive can recognize shovel-ready projects. Let's follow up with hammer and saw literacy and then move on to more complicated things, like tire changing literacy, jump start literacy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDisassemble appliances? Are you mad? In the Brave New World of central planning you're not even allowed to plug that appliance into an electrical outlet. Unless you have the right credentials. Liability insurance. And union card.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFuel injection has made much of my mechanic skills useless. I have no idea what a guy is supposed to do to learn these today.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFuel injection just made it easier to replace the carburetor -- and made the carburetor far more reliable. For cryin' out loud, the diagnostic codes you can get out with a paper clip or a $50 reader will _tell_ you what to change. All you have to do then is change the stinkin' part. Buy an aftermarket manual and read. Try the interwebs too!
This is a generation that has become complacent from cars with easy 100K mile lifetimes and consumer products viewed as obsolete before they every break.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgreed. The operating system in google phones was initially written by a guy who wanted to try to write one. The apple browser is based on the work of a guy who wanted to write a browser in his spare time.
The problems and fixes are different, but same skills. At a local manufacturing plant, the R&D department is a tinkerers dream, shelves loaded with test equipment etc.
What has changed is that we are affluent enough to pay someone to do the work, so our sons don't learn by watching us. Simple as that.
There isn't much more valuable to pass on to our offspring than the ability to think and figure things out, and the confidence that they can. And an ability to put in the effort to solve a problem. With those skills, they will never lack for remunerated work.
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