In article , "Dee D. Flint"
writes:

NONE of the tests were EVER intended to be "lid filters". They were a means
to require a certain basic knowledge to allow people into radio.

I guess it all depends on how we define "lid filter".

If it means that some sort of test is supposed to guarantee that everyone who
passes it will somehow be a fully qualified, skilled, courteous, law-abiding
radio amateur who will advance the state of the art, then there is no such test
and no test was ever intended to do that job.

But if it means that the test will help to insure that those who pass it have
at least some minimum level of qualifications (knowledge and skill) to be
hams....

It all boils down to what constitutes "basic knowledge to allow people into
[amateur] radio". For some that includes a basic test of Morse code skill, for
some others it does not. For some it includes technical and regulatory
knowledge and for others it does not.

Further
testing was intended to motivate people to expand their knowledge by
awarding privileges to those who did undertake the self-learning and
development.

Agreed - all the way back into the 1930s, when the Class A license was
invented. Or even earlier, if we count the old Amateur Extra First Class
license.

This is why it is not necessary to have a direct tie between material tested
and privileges awarded. Instead you tie the most desireable priviliges not
to the type of material but to information and skills that they should have
but don't want to learn.

That's an excellent point, Dee. But it's exactly what some people call "jumping
through hoops", "hazing rituals", "giving out gold stars" and such.

Now we see the same arguments that were used against the code test being used
against the written test in the NCVEC proposal. How do we argue against it?

Unless I am mistaken, at least one of the folks behind the NCVEC petition
was/is on the NoCode International board. And the whole thing was clearly laid
out in the "21st Century" paper.

This is the way society, in general, works.

Agreed.

73 de Jim, N2EY