Re: lowest common denominator
"Yes but most parents want their kids to have skills they are actually likely to use in the workplace."
So teach concepts, not products. Office is not the only way to use a computer, nor should it ever be.
Many new grads coming into our workplace have not been big Office users but they figure out what they need to quickly. They also introduce some pretty interesting new ways of doing things efficiently that don't involve Office. That stuff scares the old farts in IT as they haven't ever popped their heads outside of the comfortable old cave they live in.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
