I just thought of a good way to respond to people who grumble about younger generations lacking skills that used to be taught as essential. (eg. beautiful handwriting, being able to catch bugs in your output effectively enough to do it on real dead-tree paper before ever submitting it to a computer, etc.)

"No one disputes that it's a useful skill to have. The question is whether the value you'll get from it in this day and age justifies continuing to ask people to invest time into it as anything other than a hobby."

There are plenty of useful skills that used to be essential to at least some segment of the population and are now hobbies. Horse-riding, carpentry, calligraphy, ballroom dancing, etc.