On 5 Aug 2006 07:27:58 -0700, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:


Do your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, the generation who
is succeeding us, have the basic skills that are needed in the world
today?


Our culture, such as it is, informs our children that working with
their hands is beneath them and that self reliance is no more than
knowing which phone number to call when you need something.

It takes some strong involvement on a parent's part to expose children
to the joys of doing for yourself; the joys of making, rather than
managing, and the satisfaction to be gained from having a basic
understanding of the things that inhabit and sometimes seem to
overwhelm our day to day lives.

In a society that seems to be so focused on happiness as a result of
the acquisition of objects, one would think that simple curiosity
about the making and maintenance of those objects would drive people
to gain some knowledge in those areas.

Apparently not.

It's having the bling, rather than making it that drives them.

We've managed to outsource our contact with the fundamental
necessities of life in the current age - much to our eventual peril,
I'm afraid.

I can see the next edition of the Foxfire series dealing with how the
old dudes managed to set up their own Wireless Internet connections,
changed their own light bulbs, cleaned their own gutters, and just
maybe - wiped their own ass.

Not that I'm cynical.


Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/