Why we homeschool, reason #1859403:
“Scotts Miracle-Gro has been forced to start training classes to remind frustrated millennials, who can’t seem to keep their flowers alive, that plants need sunlight to grow (apparently not a single millennial ever took biology in grade school). Commenting on the tutorials, a defeated VP of Corporate Affairs, Jim King, admitted “these are simple things we wouldn’t have really thought to do or needed to do 15 to 20 years ago”…sorry, Mr. King this is your life now.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has started offering gardening lessons for young homeowners that cover basic tips—really, really basic—like making sure sunlight can reach plants.
“These are simple things we wouldn’t have really thought to do or needed to do 15 to 20 years ago,” says Jim King, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Scotts. “But this is a group who may not have grown up putting their hands in the dirt growing their vegetable garden in mom and dad’s backyard.”
“They grew up playing soccer, having dance recitals and playing an Xbox,” says Scott’s Mr. King. “They probably didn’t spend as much time helping mom and dad out in the yard as their predecessors or their predecessors’ predecessors.”
Companies such as Scotts, Home Depot Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. , Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s West Elm and the Sherwin-Williams Co. are hosting classes and online tutorials to teach such basic skills as how to mow the lawn, use a tape measure, mop a floor, hammer a nail and pick a paint color.
Unfortunately, at least for the Home Depots of the world, millennials now represent the largest demographic in America with 4.75 million 26-year-olds roaming the streets of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles without a clue as to how to use a tape measure.” via Zerohedge
Beyond the pathetic school system, the epidemic of single mothers and broken families almost certainly has had an impact on this mechanically and horticulturally disinclined zombie generation.
*Image at top by Sean McEntee. CC license.
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
5 comments
On the other hand, I imagine we all have embarrassing holes in our practical educations– it’s nice that there are people out there trying to remediate it, whether that’s Home Depot or YouTube. Before I moved out, I’d learned to sew, drive a stick shift, change a tire, do laundry, save money, grow tomatoes, and several other handy things. But I could not cook. I did finally learn– with a lot of help from the library, and friends. There are so many more resources available for that sort of thing now! It’s an exciting world, if there is still stuff you want to learn :)
I watched the Home Depot video in question, and I learned at least 3 new things about using tape measures.
And I took shop classes back in high school … best to be quick to listen and learn from every and any source.
Thank goodness for Miracle Grow
Sadly but not surprisingly it’s similar in the UK. I have a cousin who guides groups round a rural studies centre. When her Mum dropped round in for a tour one day she said the level of ignorance was actually worse than the evacuees coming out of inner cities in the 1940s. Rest assured we don’t believe our children’s education stops with the school curriculum!
Sadly, too many parents of my generation thought that do everything for their children was the greatest gift they could give. Example: my sister in her freshman year of college found another freshman standing in the laundry room just staring at the machines. She realized he had no idea how to do laundry as his mom had always done it for him. Thankfully, my parents believed that raising a child actually included fully preparing us to be equipped adults, so my sis taught the guy how to do laundry.
Now that my generation are becoming homeowners and parents…oh how the educational gaps are becoming apparent.
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