Every generation believes the younger generation are not prepared for the world we live in. But are we to blame for this phenomenon.?
As parents we have pushed our children to university and tell all the younger generation “You Need degrees to get on in this world”. And yes, our children are so well educated they struggle to boil an egg! The handwriting skills have now been deteriorating every generation. Our current group maybe keyboard wizards but the use of the pen is a skill that has been put in to storage. What is the problem with getting a good old trade? Like becoming a Mechanic, Block layer, Carpenter? It probably doesn’t sound as good at the now dinner parties of the suburbs when telling the Jones next door ‘Well My Mary is a qualified surgeon, She hopes to get work in Australia , at the moment she is living at home after uni” sounds, for some reason “ Micky is ran off his feet day and night as an electrician, Just finished building his new bungalow” “Ah that’s a shame” comes the reply , “he should have went to uni!”
So why am I talking about this today in our senior’s column? When I was growing up, I spent my summer holidays working as a farm hand to get few Pound as it was at the time. My Grannie had a small farm where I was taught how to milk cows, sow and nurture vegetable plots and we repaired rather than replaced any items that ‘broke down’ We had the ability to think as we tried to survive and adapt to every situation. My mother’s handwriting was elegant, mine not so, and now I look at my children and theirs is even less so! Soon the skill of handwriting we be forgotten trade like so many others of our youth.
I was very fortunate as I had the great experience of working the bellows in the Forge on the castle comer road, just past the entrance to Jenkinstown wood. Maybe I was just lucky or had that sense of adventure and curiosity to learn and build what seems to have been lost today ‘COP ON’
Yes, good auld cop on! We had that in abundance. I was listening to the ‘Talk to Joe’ as he spoke to an elderly gentleman who is the proprietor of one of the largest pubs in Dublin about his new Trainees. He explained to the nation through the airways provided by ‘Uncle Joe’ the house wife’s second favourite after the real ‘Uncle Gaybo’, issues regarding simple day to day activities such as pulling a pint of the black stuff. Needless to say, no issue with sinking them on a night out but to produce them for a punter, well as we say of days of yore! ‘That’s another Story’. The listeners were flabbergasted when he told his captive audience despite all their degrees of education needed their mobile phone to calculate change due to the waiting customer whose shocked face was plain to see as he stood rooted to the floor gazing at his what was supposed to be a creamy pint of porter that looked more like a vanilla Sunday from the dessert menu.
Now please don’t get me wrong, some of this generation are top class! We have intergenerational programme where they assist our seniors with every growing need for IT skills. In return they get an opportunity, they to will have to navigate, the Degree of Life. Yes, this is a degree not available from any university but by learning day to day as go from cradle to grave the way to make it through the all the trials and tribulations that everyday life throws at you. And the best way to deal with these events is with a big sip of Cop on !
