I think you're my new best friend, LOL. I've been complaining about the dumbing down of the younger generations for ages! I'm almost 51. My kids are 31 (32 on Tuesday), 29 and 27. They were never taught cursive writing in school. Best believe they were taught by me. Their friends can't tell time. Seriously, they'd come to the house as teenagers and had to go to the kitchen to look at the microwave to find out the time because they had no idea how to deal with a clock with a face.

My middle son had learning differences. He's Dyslexic and has Central Auditory Processing Disorder. He was diagnosed in grade 2 and as far as the Dyslexia goes, they said it was the most severe case they'd ever seen. We held him back in grade 2, to the horror of the school because, you know, you can't do that anymore. And the teacher actually told us he didn't have to take the weekly spelling lessons because spell check would take care of it for him. Ummm, no. How the hell does a child grow into a reasonably functional adult without knowing how to spell? Yeah, he did the damn spelling. Today, he's brilliant, an avid reader, a damn good writer, you get the idea.

As for chaging the past, The Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984 comes to mind and it's a little too real.