7 Skills We No Longer Teach but Should

Change a flat tire and jump-start a dead battery

Bankrate says Americans have 220 million flat tires every year, or roughly one every seven seconds. Sure, you can wait for a road assistance service to come to your rescue. Or you can just do it yourself — if you know how. And therein lies the problem: There’s a good chance nobody has taught you these skills.

How to manage money

When I was about 8 or 9, my mother marched me to the local bank branch to open a savings account in my name. I faithfully — and proudly — deposited as much as I could for the next decade or so. I began by collecting empty milk bottles from the neighbors and taking them to the redemption center, depositing every penny they earned me. When I got older, I worked an after-school job at the corner drugstore and put my minimum-wage earnings straight into the bank. Same for the jobs I held during the summers, and cash gifts relatives gave me.

I learned to be a saver, not a spender. I figured out how to budget and knew what things cost. I learned the power that money yields and the difference between my wants and my needs. That bank account, supplemented by scholarships and a work-study plan, allowed me to go to college. I graduated without debt. I have excellent credit because I’ve always paid my bills on time. I am in control of my relationship with money for one simple reason: My parents did not serve as a personal ATM for my every desire. They didn’t have the money to give, so they taught me how to earn and manage money on my own. And it all began on the day my mother took me to the bank to open a savings account.

How to function as adults

By the time my kids were 18, they knew how to make their own doctors’ appointments, how to dispute a charge on a restaurant bill and how to book an airplane flight. They registered for their college classes without Mom standing watch.

How did they know how to do all those things? Easy: Their dad and I taught them how to talk to adults. We taught them how to advocate for themselves without our help. We let them negotiate with the unfair soccer coach and the no-nonsense unforgiving teacher. We listened, we comforted and we advised them when asked, but mostly we supported them, loved them and gave them room to make the mistakes from which they learned.

Truth: My kids have never brought me their dirty laundry and expected me to wash it.

Good manners

There is a reason we shouldn’t drive down the street with our car radio blasting so loud that it rattles windows. There is also a reason why we should send thank-you notes, not chew with our mouths open or talk on our phone at the movies.

Laws may be the foundation of a civilized society, but manners — the small courtesies we show one another by holding a door open, giving up a seat on the train, asking someone if they need help — allow us to all live in our shared space with relative peace and harmony.

How hard is it, really, to learn how to behave around others?

The Emily Post Institute — which has been promoting etiquette since Emily Post wrote her first book on the subject, Etiquette, in 1922 — has a pretty simple formula for the core and essence of good manners: Base how you treat others on consideration, respect and honesty. Now, wouldn’t that be something?

Share Your Experience: What lost skill do you think young people today ought to know?