So what?

Every now and again you get people bemoaning the fact that old skills are dying out. I can understand that, but what I think you need to ask is whether those skills are really necessary in today's world. Things move on, and stuff you really needed to know yesterday may not be so important today. This was brought to mind by the headline "Three In Four British Kids Can't Boil An Egg". Cooking was a necessary skill in my young day - otherwise you didn't eat. But today? With all the tinned, packaged, frozen and ready to eat meals on offer, you can get by without doing anything other than warming a saucepan or operating the microwave. That's not to say that you shouldn't bother to teach your kids to cook, but it's no longer the essential ability it once was.