some purple flowers I never learned the name of the whole time I grew up there
Probably chicory (which is more of a lavender color) or creeping charlie. I guess you could steep the roots and see if it tastes like camp coffee.
Egads... with 15% sales tax the streets must be paved with gold.
Anyway, the method you teach is something I actually learned in grade school (I guess fourth grade) from my vice principal, of all people. He was sitting in the class and suggested it along with the "standard" method of "x + %x" that the teacher was using. The handful of kids who had trouble grokking it (or were just annoyed by the extra step) got it right there.
OK, you don't know what my level of driving skill is. I know how to operate a stick, although I'd be pretty rusty by now. I think the last vehicle I operated with a stick had it on the column.
Second, IF MY CAR DOESN'T HAVE A STICK I DON'T NEED TO BE ABLE TO DRIVE WITH A STICK. Example: the ham licensing. Morse code skills are no longer vital, so you don't need to demonstrate morse code proficiency for the novice license. If I never touch a manual transmission, why should I learn to use one? I mean, you're demanding people obtain a car with a stick so they can pass a driving test on it when they may never use one. Maybe I should make you learn in the 1971 Ford pickup that had it on the column-- just in case you had to drive one.
It's really not that hard to avoid using a stick. Maybe you're some sort of automotive purist who believes we need to have manual transmissions to "really drive". People in the past protested when we got power steering, independent suspension, and OBD too.
Knowing the task well enough to automate it, and knowing how to automate tasks at all, is a skill that not everyone has. It's like the anecdote about Charles Steinmetz, who charged Ford $1 for a chalk mark on the proper access panel of a faulty generator and $9,999 for knowing where to put it.
BLISS is ignorance.