I often hear comments from teachers and industry representatives along the lines of, “Kids these days don’t know how to use a broom,” or “They’ve never threaded a needle.”
The phrase usually comes wrapped in frustration and followed closely by another favourite: “They just don’t have any common sense.”
Is that actually true? Do many young people today get to use a broom at home? In a lot of households there is a Dyson, a robot vacuum, or the HEPA vacuum that has replaced the broom. Press a button, move it around the floor, and the dirt disappears. If a student picks up a broom for the first time and sweeps it backwards and forwards like a vacuum cleaner, is that really a lack of common sense? Or is it simply that nobody has ever shown them how to use one?
The same can be said for threading a needle. Previous generations often learned sewing and mending because clothing was repaired, altered, and passed on. Today, many families are balancing work, children, sport, and countless other commitments. A teenager tears the seam on a top and suggests buying another one from Kmart for $9. Mum quickly does the maths. The cost of a new shirt is less than the value of the time required to find the sewing kit, thread the needle, and complete the repair. Whether we like it or not, that is the reality many families live in.
So whose fault is it that the teenager cannot use a broom naturally? Probably nobody’s.
Are knowledge and skills fixed? Or do they change as society changes? Every generation grows up with a different set of tools, technologies, expectations, and experiences. Young people today may never have used a broom or threaded a needle, but they can often navigate digital systems, apps, devices, and online environments with a confidence that leaves many adults scrambling to keep up.
The interesting thing is that students rarely respond to our frustrations with the same judgement. When a teacher can’t get the sound working on a presentation, struggles to move an image in a document, or can’t find a setting on their phone, students generally don’t roll their eyes and announce that the teacher lacks common sense. More often than not, they simply lean over and show them how to do it.
Too often we treat unfamiliarity as a character flaw rather than what it really is: a learning opportunity.
If a young person needs to know how to use a broom safely and effectively in a workshop, then teach them how to use a broom. If they need to thread a needle in a textiles room, teach them how to thread a needle. If they need to use a craft knife, or hand wash the dishes, then teach those things too.
The challenge for educators, employers, and adults generally is to stop assuming that the knowledge we possess is knowledge that everyone should already have. We don’t know what experiences a young person brings with them. We don’t know what skills have been valued in their home, their community, or their previous learning environments.
Every generation has knowledge gaps when viewed through the lens of another generation. The difference is that today’s young people happen to be growing up in a world that looks very different from the one many of us knew.
So the next time a student picks up a broom and doesn’t quite know what to do with it, maybe that’s not evidence of a lack of common sense. Maybe it’s simply evidence that nobody has taught them yet. And if it’s important in our context, then that’s our job.
