Oct 18, 2017–As my granddaughter dropped scavenged coins into her piggy bank, I realized I am seeing the last generation that will use this method of saving.
Coins are obsolete.
I hate to calculate the time spent first as a student, then as a teacher and parent either learning or trying to teach the values of coinage. There used to be an entire chapter in the math textbook devoted to sorting out the silly names of coins.
One cent is called a penny? Why? Nickels? Dimes? Quarters?
The words we give coins bear no attachment to their value, except for those who majored in Latin. Maybe “half dollar” makes sense–50 cents.
For what purpose did we make sure our kids could tell the difference between a dime and a dollar? Sure, it was a valuable life skill in the 1940s when newspapers, phone calls, candy bars, cigars, and cups of coffee all cost a nickel.
But when is the last time you bought anything and got change for a dollar? The debate is not whether we need to keep the penny. The debate is why we need any coins under a dollar at all?
Dollars are a decimal system that is so much easier to remember. A dollar is called “a dollar.” Five dollars is “five dollars.”
Not a tanner or a quid or a half-farthing or whatever fol-de-rol the British came up with.
Another candidate for discarded art is that of “Telling Time.”
We’ve long anticipated this, ever since digital watches appeared. I mean, we’re still saying, “O’ the clock?” But it has gone beyond the retirement of the analog clock face.
(I still remember missing a question in elementary school about “half past” nine. In my mind, the big hand would be halfway down the right side, so I said 9:15. The correct answer, of course, is NOBODY SAYS HALF PAST NINE ANYMORE!)
The reason we don’t need to “read” clocks is because they will “tell” us the time. With a synthetic voice. And remind us over and over.
Here is my list of other obsolete skills that we spent hours of frustration learning how to do, and no longer use except to bore young people:
- Shifting gears
- Reading maps
- Tuning engines
- Finding stations on the radio dial
- Calling long distance
- Writing letters
- Typing
- Ironing
- Sewing
- Canning
- Cooking
That last one is interesting. Now we can bring home pre-chopped salads, pre-mashed guacamole, pre-seasoned meats, and pre-mixed margaritas. We don’t even have to bring it home–there are companies that will ship it to your door.
But, now that we no longer need to cook three meals a day, we take classes learning how to prepare meals. Cooking has moved from commodity to hobby.
Are we better or worse off? Who knows? Very few reading this grew up needing to know how to hitch a wagon, use a wringer washer, or dance the reel, and that was no handicap unless your career plans included frontier re-enactor.
And that’s my two cents.