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* Shutterstock/Istock/Istock COMPLETELY OBSOLETE? En español | When you think about it, human progress can be summed up as the shedding of skills that once seemed vital in order to free up

times to acquire new ones. Steamboat captains aren’t much in demand these days; expertise in social media is. It’s a process that used to take several generations. These days, it happens in

a blur. Already, vast areas of Boomer knowledge is becoming obsolete. 1 of 13 * Alamy HOW TO READ A MAP What will happen to our progeny when the cellphone battery dies and they are 40 miles

south of East Nowhere? Will they know how to orient themselves on a map? Will there be maps? 2 of 13 * Shutterstock HOW TO DO SIMPLE HOME CRAFTS It took my mother 30 seconds to teach me how

to press fall leaves between two pieces of waxed paper. Boom! Our kids will consult Pinterest, where they will learn that if they have a balloon, a quart of Mod Podge, two pounds of confetti

and six hours, they can make a popcorn bowl—assuming nothing goes wrong, which it will. 3 of 13 * Alamy HOW TO SEND THINGS THROUGH THE MAIL As a freelance editor, I sometimes send book

manuscripts through the mail. Not long ago, a 20-something clerk at Office Depot took the four-pound box of manuscripts I was sending back to its author, stuck a 42-cent stamp on it and

tossed it in the mail bin. I just looked at him. “What?” he said. He had no idea that postage was calculated by weight because he had never mailed a package before. 4 of 13 * Istock HOW TO

WRITE IN CURSIVE My husband can’t tell if my shopping list says “bran flour” or “brake fluid”—and I’m a product of an era when schools still taught penmanship. Now that Common Core has

deemed penmanship irrelevant, our kids are doomed. Archeologists of the future will wonder how a species that communicated in emoticons ever achieved space flight. 5 of 13 * Shutterstock HOW

TO FOLK DANCE Folk dancing was the go-to recess activity on rainy days when I was in elementary school. It incorporated music into learning, it taught the basics of etiquette, and it was

fun. These days, kids are lucky to get recess, period. 6 of 13 * Robert Deutschman AARP OFFER: REMEMBER THE PAST, HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE Share your stories and help advocate for political

support to protect your future. JOIN AARP TO SUPPORT LIVING WITH DIGNITY AND PURPOSE. 7 of 13 * Getty Images HOW TO MAINTAIN AN EXTENSIVE MENTAL ARCHIVE OF 1960S-ERA COMMERCIAL JINGLES

Thanks to the fact that I have all the lyrics to the Armour Hot Dog song stuck in my brain, I have no mental bandwidth left for my bank account password. Fortunately, our children won’t have

their brains cluttered up this way. They will be busy curating an extensive mental archive of rap lyrics. 8 of 13 * Shutterstock HOW TO PLANT VEGETABLES BY THE PHASE OF THE MOON There’s no

science behind this folklore, sad to say. But it did attune you to the rhythms of nature without having to shell out for a $700 “mindfulness retreat.” 9 of 13 * Istock HOW TO BALANCE A

CHECKBOOK Or, for that matter, write a check. 10 of 13 * Istock HOW TO MAKE CHANGE IN THEIR HEADS What’s $8.47 out of $20? If you’re like me, you do a mental exercise that goes something

like: $10, plus another dollar makes $11, and 50 cents plus three more comes to $11.53. Okay, I just checked that on my Iphone, but I can do it in my head if I have to. 11 of 13 * Istock HOW

TO DRIVE A STICK SHIFT With the advent of driverless cars, our children may never even get behind the wheel, much less learn how to pop a clutch. On the other hand, this would mean we could

all say goodbye to Driver’s Ed. On the whole, this is progress. 12 of 13 * VIEW MORE SLIDESHOWS * 12 WAYS MILLENNIALS DIFFER FROM BOOMERS * 9 UNIQUE FIRST LADIES THROUGH HISTORY * JFK:

PERSONAL PORTRAITS FROM A PUBLIC LIFE * 10 IDEAL COLLEGE TOWNS TO RETIRE RENEW MEMBERSHIP — CONTINUE YOUR AARP BENEFITS, DISCOUNTS, MAGAZINE & MORE 13 of 13