By Dr. Anthony Policastro

I recently was shopping at a local store. The bill came to $20.96. I handed the cashier $21.05 and said that would get me a nickel change. She teasingly told me that she could do the math unlike some of the younger generation.

I responded that my daughter took the three grandsons to the Caribbean last year. She had to teach them how to sign their name for their passports. The cashier mentioned that she had taught her grandson to sign his name as well. The two women in line behind me had similar experiences with their grandchildren.

It led me to wonder how has the role of parental instruction changed over time. Parents have always been the ones to teach their children the difference between right and wrong. They have always been the ones to teach their children about respect for others.

However, times have changed. Parents need to evaluate what skills their children need that are either not taught at school or not reinforced in the real world.

Signature is an example of that. Cursive writing used to be a natural precursor to signatures. Teaching cursive writing has fallen out of favor. However, signatures are still needed. Passports require them. Tax returns require them. Job applications require them. Bank accounts require them. 

That means that the skill must come from somewhere. Perhaps that means the grandparents, similar to the store experience that I was discussing above. Perhaps that means the parents. It is still something that needs to happen. You can learn to write a signature without really knowing cursive.

I was joking about making change. And I even used a penny in the process. Pennies are going away. Cash is disappearing. However, we are not entirely cashless. Even if schools teach about money, it is not going to stay with the child if they do not use it. Parents can help fill this gap by allowing children to have actual practice purchasing things with real money.

No one has to worry about travel directions in the days of online maps. They simply put in the destination and follow the directions. However, what happens if the battery eating map app drains the phone? What happens if the car is in a dead zone? What happens if the directions lead to a one lane road with a washed out bridge (that actually happened to me).

Reading a map is a lost skill. Even if it is taught in school, it is similar to making change. Until you use the skills in a real world situation, they may not get the reinforcement that they need.

Students learn multiplication in the classroom. They even learn how to calculate percentages. However, shopping in stores with discounts listed as percentages may not allow those skills to translate. For example, if something is listed as 20 percent off, that means it costs 80 percent of the original price. That is easy math to do, but only if you practice it in a real world situation.

There are probably other examples of practical things that parents can imagine. The issue is not so much whether the school teaches them or not. The issue is whether they receive the proper reinforcement in the real world. These things are as much a job of the parents as teaching right from wrong.