16 Dec
2025
16 Dec
'25
1:59 p.m.
> It is a sad comment on our society that there
could be a need to tell
> people.
> Are there really people who were not taught that the first time that they
> encountered a threaded fastener?
On Tue, 16 Dec 2025, Carey Schug wrote:
i guess it is such a sad comment. at 76 years old I
was never taught that,
including in shop class in high school.
It is interesting, and a little horrifying, that it wasn't taught.
Surely it wasn't that the shop teacher didn't know to do it?
Or, maybe it was so deeply ingrained that it didn't occur to mention it?
My mother (farm raised) told me.
Even my father (city boy from NYC, "call the super"), who didn't even know
that there is more than one size of Phillips screwdrivers, told me.
But, for half a century, I have been saying that the demise of erector
sets (or equivalent in other countries) after they changed from a motor
with a whole bunch of gears to a plastic battery motor, means that
mechanical competence is going, going, gone
(Likewise, modern kids don't all know what "CLOCKWISE" means! (reasonably
mentioned about Jake in "Two And A Half Men".))
("When you are standing on your head, and seeing with a mirror, to know
which way to turn the drainplug, imagine a watch face on it.")
--
Grumpy Ol' Honda Fred ("wrote the book", but only literally)
cisin(a)xenosoft.com