Another lost skill – cooking.  Being a guy I wouldn’t say I’m a brilliant cook.  I did live on my own for eight years so I have some skills but I’m not a chef!  I can cook a roast dinner for example,  potatoes in their jackets, or cheese on toast.  I can cook a full English breakfast I.e. eggs bacon, sausages, mushrooms, hash browns, and coffee.  My partner is the real cook of the house hold (I have to say this she reads my articles!) seriously she is a good cook.

 Jamie Oliver produced a cooking programme recently, to see how many parents can actually cook.  Jamie visited a part of Yorkshire, very near to where I live and the results were shocking! Several families could not boil an egg or even peel potatoes.  They had never even tried to cook something as simple as peas, or carrots.  Indeed one lady admitted “My mother didn’t cook, I don’t cook and my children aren’t going to cook!”  The family survived on only pre-cooked dinners that were cooked in the microwave.  The family in question did not have a conventional oven!  More basic life skills lost in the sands of time.

Probably one of the biggest basic skills that has been lost, is the use of the English language! When I listen to teenagers talking now, its very hard to discern what they are talking about.  For example the normal disucssion goes something like “Na wot I mean Bredrin? Its like this innit?  Me and ma possie is gonna hang out at the McDonald’s.  Innit tho? Na what I mean?” Roughly translated into English, they mean “We are going to McDonald’s for a while, and will get something to eat no-doubt.”  Most youngsters want to talk in some form of ghetto related gangster rap (even though they don’t come from the ghetto!)

One of the problems occur when teenagers try to fill out application forms for a job.  They don’t know how to construct, or spell a proper sentence in English.  Recently, there was a campaign launched by some tutors, to do away with spelling words as stipulated in the dictionary.  They claimed that it was stifling the students!  Instead they voted for phonetic spelling, where you spell the word as it sounds, rather than as it is written.  For example, before is written as b4, or later becomes L8r, just the same ways as teenagers spell words when they are texting people. Luckily the break-away movement was crushed. 

The art of speaking/communication is another skill which is slowly being lost, mainly due to the invention of television.  Does the T.V. ever get switched off in your house?   For many households, it has become an involuntary act now to get up in the morning, and the first thing you do is switch on the T.V.   Then when you come home from work, on goes the T.V. again.   I know that it can be just background noise, but it is stifling our imaginations and communication skills.

I’m not proclaiming to be a saint, I’m as guilty as the next person, as I’m becoming lazy practising my life skills.  However, I am going to try to hang onto some basic life skills.  As long as I am able to do such things as cooking, driving properly, speaking in a language that other people can understand and be courteous and retain good manners, I’m playing my part.

Is anyone else willing to join me?

Lord Banks