"robert casey" wrote in message
ink.net...

The biggest problem with most is "laziness". Maybe you never will use it
again. There are many things you learn in life and may never use again,
unless you plan to play on Jeopardy. Many people learned the skeletal
system in health class, microorganisms in Biology class. It doesn't mean
they use it now. Probably forgot it as soon as they graduated.

Guess that explains Creationism. They either forgot or just
never did get biology class. And get upset when science
contradicts a trivial off topic section of the Bible.
But there is hope that some people will "get it" and
be able to do something with it. Of course the school
or FCC has to pick and choose what the kids should try
to learn. Spending less time on European medieval kings and
more on Vietnam would make sense, as modern governments are
no longer kings sitting around in castles getting bored
and deciding to have wars for the fun of it. Well, today kings
are called "dictators" anyway. Now to bring this back to
ham radio, is requiring code worth the time prospective
hams would have to spend on it, or maybe more theory should
be asked for today?

I seriously doubt that the FCC would increase code speed for
extras. The medical wavier issue would crop up again, and
the FCC found that to be a PITA. Besides it would be hard
for the FCC to tell old extras from newer extras as IIRC they
didn't keep track of who was who as old extras came up for
renewal.

I'm not so sure "more" theory is the answer either. Used to be, you HAD to
know electronics when you went for the exams. NO ONE told you what was on
the exams. Then some lazy ******* got some political pull and they started
to dumb down the theory and put "ALL" possible questions and answers in a
book - for someone to read and recall. That isn't teaching anyone -
anything. Any idiot can learn that way, to the extent needed. It doesn't do
anything to reinforce it in their heads as to what to do with it after. IF
they make it more theory, then they'll just make the "idiot" books cover it,
and again, you'll have a bunch of people who learned A, B, C or D, not the
real meat and potatoes of Electronics. I've seen them come away and not know
what a fuse does or some of simplest of schematic symbols they "should"
know. Give me a break. Those books today teach them NOTHING. They're nothing
more than the sugar coating of it all. Just enough to get by and HOPE they
plan to pursue it further on their own, which MOST - DO NOT. Again, due to
LAZINESS.

You're right about the History though, not to lay so much on the past, but
work on current affairs. Past is good, but often TOO much time is spent on
it. That stuff is building blocks to some extent, history does have a
propensity to repeat itself, so you can't "ignore" it as a whole, but
spending say a week learning about King Arthur just doesn't get it. I recall
our teacher trying to drill **** in our heads about Genghis Khan (sp?). I
could give a **** less what he did. What I DID come to ignore and have a
need for later in life, was that stuff covered in Health class. I ended up
using it a few years out of school.
I wished then I had paid more attention to it. So, I had to "relearn" most
of it. Some things DO have their uses.

As to code, actually, it isn't so bad to know - really. Think about it. You
have sign language for deaf. IF you plan to talk to a person who is deaf,
you better learn it real fast. If you plan to travel - you may need to learn
some foreign language, even though most can speak English now. Code "can"
have benefits. We had 9 miners trapped about a year ago. They communicated
that there were nine, by 9 raps on the pole stuck in the ground. Had someone
in the ground and above ground knew code, a more detailed description could
have been issued. It could have helped. Before they got the elevator in to
get them, they had no idea what "physical" shape the guys were in or any
pending dangers under the ground. Maybe you won't use code again once
learned, but at some point, it may save a life with the user's intervention.
If you're in an auto accident, down in a gully, you have a radio. The mic is
broken, so you can't talk. You could key the radio with a key or something
and send a message. Hopefully someone knowing code would hear it and be able
to let others know. There are many reasons people can give to "not" learn
code, but there are just as many as to it's benefits. If it saves only one
life, it is worth it.

cl