this was in the 70's in WA state. everyone had to take a quarter each of: home economics (how to balance checkbook, invest and save money, etc), shop, cooking, and something else useful.
no child left behind... lol
randy
Compulsive!
Thanks. State education boards and local school boards go thru periods of insanity fairly regularly and there is no telling what they may make a requirement or delete from the required list. I would not have suspected the Midwest.
You're joking, right? If you took away the arts, our economy would collapse faster than you can comb over Donald Trump.
BB
When I was in school our shop teacher was giving a demonstration on how not to use a band saw and cut his damn thumb off. They should have made him "Teacher Of The Year." That was the kind of lesson that sticks with you. Unfortunately I no longer work much with wood, MS has destroyed those nerve tracts governing mathematical calculations.
Stone
Yeah, the world would be in sorry shape if not for these "artists" keeping us happy. You forgot other great heroes like Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears.
afaik all king county (seattle area) schools had the requirement. schools there were pretty well funded at the time. lots of special classes for both learning challenged and gifted students. even then i think most of us knew we were getting a decent education. looking back, it was really good.\
seems nowdays with all this 'standardized testing' bs all the teachers i know are just completely frustrated.
randy
You had to take shop? I never had to take, but I did take a year. My father was born in 1898 and he never had to take shop. But he did for 4 years of high school. I'm curious, what time frame and what state required such a thing? I could see CA maybe MA.
None the less, I agree with you. But as the world gets more complicated, fixing things requires more knowledge and some people are barely able to tie their shoes. Hell, they can't even check to see if the appliance is plugged in before calling the repairman.
Contrary to the BS you keep hearing from educators, people are NOT getting smarter. More people that ever are being mis-educated; although that has always been common in small groups large groups of mis-informed people result with the current technology. Kooks and kook believers are as common as ever and always will be.
Jeff, I totally agree with just about everything you said
Even if you don't have an insatiable appetite for stuff, you still get screwed. All sorts of interests push one toward efficient stuff that you simply cannot fix, e.g. "improved" gas furnaces that require all sorts of electronics and a failed board can only be replaced, not fix, even if one bought all the tools to figure out what went wrong. Or new cars completely controlled by electronics.
Or play computer games. I find that it's not so much the fixing as the finding out that is most enjoyable.
I wouldn't worry to much about giving them advice that may be dangerous if not carefully followed. They are driving auto and may kill you and they are also likely to be the ones that are into a variety of highly dangerous activities which hopefully will end their gene line.
Nah: Don't give up! Fixing things that is. One aspect that no one has mentioned is 'confidence', along with a sensible appreciation of one's own capabilities! Being proud of a general ability to 'fix things'; is to be aware of danger and how avoid or get oneself and perhaps others out of a jam. To have in fact an ability to 'survive' as well or better than anyone. Also to appreciate what one is not capable of, must learn more about and/or leave for someone more expert than oneself?. I'm not happy with the "Duh! I didn't thunk that thing would catch fire; just cos I put in a 30 amp fuse when the 15 amp blew ...... ", school of thought! Also with people who are dangerous to themselves even when they have the right equipment. I'm happy my son is capable. He's interested to be that way. Others ask him to read and analyse the fault codes of their engine computer, take a look at their vehicle brakes, check a defective electrical outlet, reprogram a computer, to explain when their audio system 'sounds funny', answer question about why and do they need a CO detector, find out why an electric motor won't start, how to wire up navigation lights on a sail boat or utility trailer, handle propane safely and/or many other technical matters. So one knows he is aware and most likely to do things rationally, confidently and survive most situations; except perhaps an airplane crash, a Tsunami or terrorist bomb? He's not much of a carpenter and he knows it. But I wasn't the least surprised having known him for the last 25+ years when I heard that during a trip to Africa he was chiefly responsible, along with his equally capable best buddy, for getting a woman, her car and child out of a mudhole. And then getting the car started again. Another couple of people who turned up were not technically capable and were deemed "Bloody useless"! Youthful impatience and unkind perhaps; but knowledge of how to organise and the confidence to use whatever was available and at hand, on the part of himself and buddy saved the day. You don't learn that by accident it takes an interest in working both practice and theory. And if one is not 'fixing stuff' inclined and more interested in poetry or music that's fine too. We need all kinds. Have fun doing what you like and probably good at!
Yeah sure, like **YOU'RE** going to troubleshoot and repair an IC756!
CQ Contest, CQ contest. You're 5 by 9. Please repeat all of your info, I can't hear you. You're 5 by 9.
eq
I am surprised that WA had such a requirement (city?), since my home state is Idaho. That sounds like "family living" or some such name for a course that was generally aimed at dummies. By the 70's home ec was dumbing down and even letting guys take the course. I like the "and something else useful." I suppose that the students were so well versed in reading writing and arithmetic that something useful like balancing your checkbook was needed to peak their interest in learning. Enough of the irony, but sometimes you would just like to slap some sense into some "educators." Speaking as a former teacher and son of a 2nd grade teacher who said, "Teachers are some of the dumbest people I know."
"George E. Cawthon" wrote: ...
And why, precisely, ???
"George E. Cawthon" wrote: ...
That would be "pique"...
You are cheap, hard headed, and nuts.
Sure you can... I honestly do not give a damn.what you call me...
Bob Griffiths
its a fine balance. one guy can get away just fine with what another cannot. some people seem to have a sense for safety issues and an intuitive sense for what will fly and what wont. others are like a little kid running across a glass covered beach, blissfully and ignorantly dodging cut after cut, for a while.
electrical work is definitely one thing i try and steer people away from if it is clear they dont have a clue. if you cannot tell which wire is hot, neutral and ground without asking the newsgroup, if you dont know which wire goes to which wire when you connect your stove, if you dont know why there's black tape wrapped around that white wire (or even worse, if you dont know when or why YOU need to wrap black tape on the white wire), you need to call an electrician.
the answers to all the above questions are given in any home wiring book. if you dont have the time to read a time life or similiar book on elementary home wiring (and these things are written for about a 6th grade education), and expect some magic step by step guide written for you on the newsgroup by someone who cant see your house, and may be guessing anyway, you are asking for trouble.
randy
Randy I apologize for biting your head off but I have been attacked on this forum as a "code bot" for trying to offer safe code compliant advice on this forum. What gets my goat is the idea that people believe that anything that works should be OK. Electricity kills and it only takes a tenth of an Ampere. Worse still the person who did the incompetent work is not the only one at risk. There are some crafts that dabblers should stay out of and electricity is one of them. I do a fair amount of work with sweat equity projects and I take the time to give sound advice here. If I didn't believe in DIY work I wouldn't do either. The counter point is that those who want to DIY their electrical work have to take the time to learn to do it right. Some of the stray anger to which you were subjected comes from thirty plus years of fire and rescue service. I have responded to a number of electrical fires and deaths and the image of a burned child never leaves you once you've seen it.
The upshot of all of that is that I will help those who are willing to take the time to learn to do it right but I have no use for the clueless "it's just color to color" types who set the land mines in the walls and ceilings of homes and are so proud that they saved some hundreds of dollars by not hiring someone.
-- Tom H
A few mos ago, my B+D coffeemaker blew a heat sensitive fuse-link, a thermal fuse, (OK,I was in the shower and had forgot to load the thing with H2O). Fair enuff, it saved the house, butt... what really got me fuming was the slimy way the thing was put together, with one-way robotic screws recessed a couple of inches up in these narrow plastic tunnels! No screwdriver in the joint would get a grip on those heads, and I've got dozens of them, from hex to torx. I attacked the heads with a tiny drill bit, butt...those screwheads were hard and rounded, so the drill kept slipping off into the plastic, grrr. Finally got a little dimple in the top of one screw, then by reversing a bigger drill bit and pushing down just enough, i got the thing to spin a bit, then a bit more, etc... No wonder nobody fixes stuff like that. I use a Palm Pilot at work, one of them got dropped in a creek. Just needed to be opened up and dried out, but who's got a torx screwdriver that tiny? Couldn't find one anywhere. Go get another Pocket Pal.
The coffemaker, i decided to toss after all. Not trustworthy once it's been tinkered with. Fire insurance, liability, etc... I'm a fixer, but there are limits to what's fixable these days, for sure.
JohnK
I would suspect the heartland to be more conservative than the two coasts and less prone or more slow to limit options.
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