Nov 10 2008
Real-World Problem Solving
In a forum discussion a few days ago, someone asked “Doesn’t anybody make anything these days?” He was lamenting lost skills, and even enjoyments, that seem to have fallen into disuse. He wondered whether any hands-on hobbies, like the woodworking that he does, still hold interest for very many people. A day or so later, I came across a news article discussing the fact that American children seem to be losing their problem-solving skills.
What’s the relationship? Problem-solving skills are developed by solving problems. But solving problems out of a book, with a teacher to tell you whether you got them right or wrong, isn’t real problem-solving. It’s just finding a pre-determined answer. If you want to learn to solve problems that matter, you have to do it in the real world. Just about the only hands-on skills that most people learn these days are how to use a keyboard or a game controller. Neither formatting a report nor negotiating your way through a virtual maze will teach you how to cope in an emergency situation, or how to do something for yourself when the person you will be paying to do it for you doesn’t show up.
Until recently, real-world skills were an intrinsic part of life. You picked them up as you went along, often with someone older or more experienced guiding you and making sure you didn’t slice off a finger or two. Even if you could find a mentor these days, many skills have been shut off behind a wall of accredited training and licensing, and are actually illegal for the average person to pracice
Other skills are all but impossible to develop because the objects involved have grown so complex. The modern automobile is a mysterious black box, and so is just about everything else we use.
Luckily, not all skills become obsolete, either through the unstoppable march of technology or the equally unstoppable tangle of laws. Also luckily, many traditional skills are still useful today, and can be learned by anyone intelligent enough to pick up an instruction book or two, and with enough persistence to work through the initial mistakes and difficulties.
Next: It’s Just a Loaf of Bread
4 Responses to “Real-World Problem Solving”
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Developing problem solving skills is one of the intangible benefits of home schooling. My son has taught himself how to cook and clean just because he got tired of waiting for me to do things for him. The public schools are filled with good intentioned, salt-of-the-earth people, but 8 hours in a classroom every day cannot compare to living life, dealing with other people, and solving problems, full-time.
You’re so right. I don’t think home schooling advocates put nearly enough emphasis on the practical skills that children can gain when they’re not sitting at a desk all day, five days a week. Lack of contact with the real world is one of the unintended consequences of compulsory schooling, but it’s still not recognized as an important social factor.
You know, something that’s becoming a lost art in the realm of practical skills is sewing. My mother and grandmother were able to make nearly anything, and I struggle to thread a machine and stitch two pieces of cloth together awkwardly! I agree, hands-on hobbies aren’t as common these days. I still intend to learn to sew some day, though.
You can do it. I learned to use the sewing machine when i was barely old enough to keep my fingers out from under the needle. I haven’t sewn much in the last couple of years because my eyesight was deteriorating. Now that I have new glasses, I have a bunch of projects I want to pick up again.