# Things they didn't teach us older people. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 9, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396 "2012-05-09T15:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/21 "2012-05-09T21:33:30Z")
> [@LilyoftheField](#): > > I was never taught how to use a smartphone - which is why I have a basic ‘dumb’ cell phone. Heck, I don’t even know how to use a dumb cell phone. If someone else handed me their cell phone, smart or dumb, and said “Here, call somebody,” I wouldn’t know how. I was never taught typing (by which I include everything from a manual typewriter to a computer keyboard). I mean, I’ve learned by doing, but I’ve never had any formal instruction of any kind. Do kids these days get taught how to type, or is it just something they pick up naturally from growing up around keyboards? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/22 "2012-05-09T21:40:53Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Let me guess - you’re about 45 years old? Good guess. 46. ETA: And no, I wasn’t taught how to type. A former secretary once told me that I type amazingly fast considering how wrong I do it. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/23 "2012-05-09T21:52:42Z")
I learned to poo without the aid of a smartphone. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/24 "2012-05-09T22:10:55Z")
Kids are still taught to type. They just call it “keyboarding” class. In our district it’s the first quarter of the required 6th grade computer class. I wasn’t taught how to cook. I sort of had to figure it out as I went along. My mom would tell me to make something and assume I could do it. It’s pretty much the same way she taught me how to sew. While this isn’t the easiest way to learn, it did teach me that all I had to do to learn something was just start messing around until I figured it out. That’s been pretty handy over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/25 "2012-05-09T22:20:24Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > True story. I wanted to take typing in grade 10 as a “bird” course. You know, an easy one with little homework. My mum wouldn’t let me. “What will you ever use typing for?” She let me take art instead. :smack: My mom, although a fundamentalist bigot, at least understood how typing chops could come in useful. So when an equally progressive fourth-grade teacher, who saw me using a typewriter, but laboriously, said, “You don’t know how to touch type?”, my mom ordered a Calvert School (home schooling) course for me. I never stop thanking her for my being able to touch type by 5th grade (20 years before homes had computers, and computers had keyboards). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/26 "2012-05-09T22:27:16Z")
World music. When I was in school, we had recorder class in 3rd grade, strings (violin and viola) in 6th grade, and band instruments in junior high. My kids got taught how to play all manner of banging-ringing-thumping world music that I literally never even heard of, outside of National Geographic specials, when I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/27 "2012-05-09T22:58:55Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > My mom, although a fundamentalist bigot, at least understood how typing chops could come in useful. So when an equally progressive fourth-grade teacher, who saw me using a typewriter, but laboriously, said, “You don’t know how to touch type?”, my mom ordered a Calvert School (home schooling) course for me. I never stop thanking her for my being able to touch type by 5th grade (20 years before homes had computers, and computers had keyboards). My mom (a very progressive liberal) also told me to take typing. She also told me never to tell anyone I could type. Back in 1967 women were still pretty much expected to be nurses and secretaries and teachers, and she didn’t want me getting tagged as a typist. Good call Mom. I went into a male-dominated field (IT) and touch typing is a damn handy skill. And of course I can admit to it now, although I leave out the part about how I learned on a manual typewriter during the Summer of Love. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/28 "2012-05-10T01:20:58Z")
How to tumble (Gymboree classes) How to formally play sports on appropriate playing fields/courts; we just went out after school for pickup games of _whatever_ in our neighborhood; baseball (the manhole was 2nd, the fire hydrant was 3rd); football (between the two trees was a TD); basketball, (if your shot went down the hill & into the creek, you had to fetch it) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/29 "2012-05-10T03:41:05Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > I learned to poo without the aid of a smartphone. There’s an app for that, probably. > [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > I wasn’t taught how to cook. I sort of had to figure it out as I went along. My mom would tell me to make something and assume I could do it. It’s pretty much the same way she taught me how to sew. While this isn’t the easiest way to learn, it did teach me that all I had to do to learn something was just start messing around until I figured it out. That’s been pretty handy over the years. That’s how I learned and how I expect my children to learn but they keep insisting on using recipes and patterns, though they don’t know half the terminology and try to learn from Youtube videos. My kids are proven idiots. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/30 "2012-05-10T13:57:43Z")
I didn’t get taught how to use comupters, but I also didn’t get taught to fear them, which my Grandparents definitely had drummed into them. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/31 "2012-05-10T14:48:46Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I didn’t get taught how to use comupters, but I also didn’t get taught to fear them, which my Grandparents definitely had drummed into them. My parents got that drummed into them, and tried to pass it on to me. Fortunately, all the time I spent playing Nintendo convinced me that something that was that much fun couldn’t be all bad. I now work in IT, and my parents have no idea what I do, nor any desire to know. ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/32 "2012-05-10T15:37:21Z")
I have never learned enough finger/hand/eye coordination to play Xbox with my kids, even though I can play the piano. They’re always yelling at me to push three or four different buttons simultaneously, and then tilt the thing, all while some monster is screaming at you. Gives me high blood pressure, it does. I have never learned how our wireless router works, or how to reset it if it goes wonky. That’s what the teenage son is for, although I suppose I should learn it so that I don’t have to make him come home from college to fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/33 "2012-05-10T15:58:15Z")
> [@limegreen](#): > > I have never learned how our wireless router works, or how to reset it if it goes wonky. The first thing to try is to unplug it, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in again. This has fixed probably at least 80% of our wireless router problems. This also works for a lot of USB devices, only in that case you unplug the USB cable, not the power cable. > [@chacoguy](#): > > I learned to poo without the aid of a smartphone. You can use a smartphone to help you poo? Maybe I _do_ need one. I’m pregnant, and can use all the help I can get in that department right now (as long as it won’t hurt the baby). I wonder if regular expressions are involved, somehow. I hope so- those, I know. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/34 "2012-05-10T16:39:21Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > . . . I wonder if **regular expressions** are involved, somehow. I hope so- those, I know. I thought that was the goal? (D&R) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/35 "2012-05-10T19:49:32Z")
Since I’ve been programming well over 40 years, I still am ahead of my kids about computers. What I haven’t been taught is why it makes sense to watch a movie on a tiny little screen, and why it makes sense to let everyone in the world know your every damn move. But this might be misanthropy, not age. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/36 "2012-05-10T20:08:28Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Oh yeah - if you were a guy, you probably weren’t taught to type. 🙂 Our little podunk rural very very small town school must have been damned progressive then as we were required to take typing courses, boys and girls alike. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/37 "2012-05-10T20:13:52Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > You can use a smartphone to help you poo? Maybe I _do_ need one. I’m pregnant, and can use all the help I can get in that department right now (as long as it won’t hurt the baby). > > I wonder if regular expressions are involved, somehow. I hope so- those, I know. Just don’t push too hard and check the bowl when you are done. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/38 "2012-05-11T21:58:47Z")
When I was born, no digital computer existed. There were a handful of analog computers, most notably Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer. TV had been invented but wouldn’t become a home machine for another 10 years (and we got our first only when I was 13, bought with my Bar Mitzvah geld). The first transistor was in the future. Boys were not taught to type. Curiously, for that era, we were taught home ec and I learned a bit about both cooking and sewing. I can still sew a seam or put a button back on and do so from time to time. All radios (and later TVs) were filled with vacuum tubes. That ended about 1960, except for the TV picture tube. (Does anyone still sell CRT TVs, I wonder?) And of course, all phones were dial (except for some rural systems that still used live operators) and cell phones were unimagined. And when I heard of a computer that cost less then $1 million, I was incredulous. But soon my department had a minicomputer (a Wang) that cost $20K and we needed a $2K/year maintenance contract. That lasted until microcomputers came out and I bought an original PC in 1982, had email by the end of 1984 and never looked back. Of course, I used dialup modems. The first was an acoustic cradle you stuffed the phone receiver into and operated at 300 baud. The second was a board that went into the computer and was 1200 baud. Within a few years it was up to 56K baud and stayed that way till I got a DSL line. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/39 "2012-05-13T15:09:41Z")
I was never taught anything mentioned in this thread . . . and with a few exceptions, have learned it all (and more) on my own, and without any kids to help me. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396/40 "2012-05-13T17:29:30Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Typing. > > (Man, I could make a list of 100 things that I learned that kids today don’t learn.) I graduated high school in '04 so I’m still fairly young. I had at least one typing class a semester for three consecutive years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-they-didnt-teach-us-older-people/621396.md?page=3)