"They Never Taught This In School"

 

I try not to be the typical grumpy Gen Xer, but y'all make it so easy.

Topic at hand: Whining about "they never taught us this in school."

My generation probably thought this a lot about many topics. Probably said it about many topics too. But the older I get, the more reality keeps slapping me in the face just like good ol' Buck Russell gets slapped trying to break the bad news to his sometimes-girlfriend Chanice:

They can't teach us everything in school.

What they *can* teach us in school is how to learn, how to seek out the experts, how to realize we're beyond our depth and have to pay for help, and how we can learn ourselves without blaming someone else for not putting the material in front of us when we were callow youth and probably would have rolled our eyes at having to learn it anyway.

Taxes. That's a big one. Nobody taught us this in school. So, learn. The IRS has instructions for us to follow. There are plenty of people on YouTube willing to help. There are CPAs if you feel too dumb to learn or have tax situations that are too complex. There's software. If you are willing to try things out, taxes are doable.

I've done all my taxes, first with the IRS instructions and lately with tax software. I only screwed up once when I put my income on the incorrect line -- but the state and the IRS were quick to recognize the problem and walked me through how to fix things without screaming or piling on the fines. That was years ago; maybe the IRS and such are meaner now, but I doubt it.

Science. There's a lot of griping about "why didn't we learn this in science class?" What I do remember is introduction to a lot of scientific concepts. I'm still interested in many aspects of science, and have done a lot of reading and watching to help me understand things better.

School can't teach us everything. It can teach us how to learn and how to remain curious, and if we take on the "ludicrous" concept that learning is a life-long endeavor, we'll spend our time learning rather than griping about what we weren't taught in school, which for me may as well be a billion years ago.

I know we've moved into an era of instant gratification. I feel it pulling on me, but I'm trying as hard as I can to resist it. Learning things can be tedious. It can be slow -- particularly if you're a dim bulb like me. But it can be done. We just have to keep at it.

Take our house, for example. We moved here in 2012, and since then I've learned a few things:

1. Sprinkler system installation and maintenance.

2. Siding installation.

3. Cedar fence replacement.

4. Low-voltage wiring.

I've also honed my skills working with tile, simple electrical repairs and replacements, shelving, and other tasks. I've worked hard trying to keep our camper from disintegrating. I've made mistakes and had to learn the hard way, but I'm learning. And they don't teach any of this stuff in school.

So get out of here with the whining. Go learn something.