Chatterbox: The Importance of Learning Traditional Skills (01/15/2026 - 01/21/2026)

 Hey y'all let's see what's up today! In this week's Chatterbox post I wanted to talk about something that might be a little controversial but I think it's incredibly important. Traditional skills are slowly going out of style, I mean it only took 2 generations for things like gardening, cooking, and cursive to become almost completely obscure. The reason this topic means so much to me, personally, is that even though I was fortunate enough to learn a lot of quote "traditional" skills many in my generation were not so lucky. I am so tired of people from older generations making the claim that us younger folks are in some way lacking in our skillsets when a good portion of us genuinely weren't taught. 

    That being said, I know a lot of traditional skills like crochet, sewing, and knitting are making a come back with us younger folks because they are very stress reducing hobbies. However, there are so many other skills that I think it's important for us to learn. In this discussion I'm going to list a few of these skills, and explain why I feel that they're important, and you guys feel free to add other notes or skills to this as well I'd love to hear your input!

Cursive

Cursive was the inspiration for this list, as I have had people genuinely surprised that I, as a young person, know how to write in cursive. This is something that I feel is really unfair considering for a lot of young people cursive was taken off the curriculum in our schools. Some of the most important documents in history were written in cursive, and while we can get a typed out translation of them, we would have no way of knowing if they were altered. 

Additionally recipes, cards, and other important items that often get passed down by generation were also written in cursive. How can we keep them in circulation if we can't read them? I've also had workplaces in which important notices I was required to type out for the company were first handwritten in cursive. If I were unable to read it that would have meant I couldn't properly perform my assigned tasks and could have cost me my job. Working in business as I do now, I have met several younger people who were unable to sign their names in cursive. To me, this poses a bit of a security risk, as print is very easy to mimic or have a font made. Cursive is a bit different from person to person, making the signatures unique and harder to copy.

Addressing Envelopes

In the world of emails and digital communications, we have all but abandoned the concept of addressing letters and envelopes. However, some things still require it such as shipping packages, return communication requests, and other places where an addressed envelope might be required. Some companies will include a pre-addressed or mostly pre-addressed envelope, but what about those that don't? Bringing back snail mail would not only be a fantastic way to introduce this skill back into the younger folks of our generation, but it would also be a fantastic way to support our local mail carriers.

Cooking

The amount of people my age that I know do not know how to cook and rely on fast food or pre-frozen meals is alarming. I feel like this was largely because a lot of people weren't taught how to cook or even preserve their food. In a time where everything feels so uncertain and temporary this is one skill that really needs to be taught more to our young people. 

Cleaning

Additionally cleaning is something that a lot of people have run into issues with, and while we have a lot of folks online that are able to help us out some people aren't able to find a way to actually keep things clean in a way that is good for their home. This was shown by the amount of social media cleaning trends that caused mold and damage to rented properties. I feel like the removal of Home Economics from the school curriculum was a bit of a mistake in all honesty.

Gardening

Being able to supply your own food and be self sufficient is a skill that we really need to pick back up. In the event of a major system failure like what my area experienced after Hurricane Helene, having food that you grew and preserved yourself would have been a lifesaver to families that were without power or areas where the stores were not able to get their systems running in order to process transactions. Gardening was one of the first skills that I learned, and its one that has served my family and our friends well. We always traded our extra produce with our neighbors for their additional produce assuming that they planted items we didn't and we would be stocked up well until the next spring when we started the process again.

Etiquette

I say this and people always get a little cracked up because well I live in the south and southern people aren't exactly known for being proper. However, people have gotten just plain rude and they're bold about it now. Yelling at employees, threatening people, taking petty drama to the internet or just flat out staring at others for one reason or another is unacceptable behavior and I am a little concerned that we've normalized it so much. You have to learn how to interact with people, treat them with a little respect, and most importantly have some respect for yourself as well. The fact that it only took a pandemic for us to completely lose the ability to interact with other people in a way that is respectful is absolutely mind boggling.

This doesn't just apply to daily social interactions either. Being rude during live theatre performances, causing genuine property damage (as seen when they were playing the Minecraft movie in theatres), and harassing celebrities to the point that it has to be addressed publicly are all things that I feel we'd be able to avoid if people were just taught basic etiquette. As my mother would say, act like you have some home raisin's!

Closing

This is just a short list of traditional skills that I think are important to today's society that we should bring back in full force, however there are so many more like wood working, sewing, and leather working. If you have your own thoughts on this list or other skills you feel we need to bring back to the public feel free to pop them in the comments. If you want to see more from me feel free to click the link below where you can find my other socials. Y'all take care, and thanks for stopping by! 

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