Heard this term on a US Marshals TV show yesterday, in the context of weekly visits to a firing range. Constant practice is needed to keep their shooting skills up to date and the idea of a skill being perishable, never occurred to me. I loved the friction that the combination of these two words brought to my head and it got me to thinking about the PS that I carry around.
Are all skills perishable? I have always heard that once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget how. I thought that most skills were that way. I can still recite two spanish phrases that I learn in 7th grade with complete accurary. I was a whiz in my high school steno class but there's not much call for that skill anymore. My typing class could probably be considered a success Story because well, we all have keyboards. I think that while the invention of the computer was done by men, they had a learning curve when it came to the keyboard.
At our sleepover this weekend, I got out an old typewriter for the boys to play with. They were intrigued by the keys hitting the ink and the words on the page. They didn't like that there was no delete buttons if you made a mistake. They woke up the next morning and started playing with it again. Spending a lot of time with a typewriter wouldn't help them on Xbox or online at Nick Junior. It wouldn't be a help to them in any area of their lives.
So, maybe we have both - perishable and concrete skills and maybe, just maybe, we can't tell the difference and when we try to use a perishable skill, one that is covered with a thick layer of dust, it doesn't work so well. Now, that makes sense.
I need to rethink this PS thing. Some things have to be done over and over to get through my thick skull. Some things have to be done over and over to make them come naturally and some things have to be done over and over because they are perishable. If they are not used, they will go back and be of no use. Another piece of the Big Puzzle - some times it is just about using what we all ready have in a different way...
