In article , "Cindy W"
writes:

Which is exacly why young kids are turned off by ham
radio. I once took a group of young black kids to a
local ham radio club meeting. All the old white men
ignored the kids or made rude remarks. These same
frustrated old white men then wonder why the hobby
is rapidly going the way of the horse & buggy.

Cindy W

Cindy:

My advise to you would be to simply ignore the "old white men."
If you want to get kids involved in amateur radio, I would seek out
some of the younger, more open-minded members of the local
ham radio clubs and ask if they could mentor your group, with
the goal of starting your own radio club geared toward younger
people. This way, they could get started off on the right foot, and
you will not be inhibited by the parochial attitudes you have
experienced in the past.

Keep in mind that once some of these kids get licensed, they
will undoubtedly wish to operate on the local ham repeaters in
your area. It would be a big help if they (the kids) were able to
communicate in good, proper, standard English, without any
"urbanized" speech patterns or language which could cause them
to run into problems being accepted on the air. This is not to
say that their cultural differences cause them to deserve any
kind of negative reaction, just that it would be more helpful to
them in the long run to realize that success in our society
requires them to adopt and adhere to some of the more mainstream
cultural standards. If they are determined to make a point of
their "black" culture in their on-the-air presence, you will definitely
find yourself up against more of the same kind of reaction you
found at the club meeting. However, if these kids are polite,
well-spoken, display proper manners in general and good on-the-air
operating manners in particular, they will most certainly receive
the kind of treatment they expect and deserve.

One more thing -- don't ignore the Morse code. Kids really love it,
and consider the challenge of learning the code and using it to be
interesting and fun. Most of the whining and complaining about
learning the code has traditionally come from middle-aged white
men who simply can't be bothered to learn a useful communications
skill, and just want to pick up a microphone and talk. You and your
kids can run rings around these old timers. You're already going
in the right direction with your interest in Packet Radio, the thing
you need to do now is to get your operation within the limits of
what is legal within the Amateur Radio service, and get your kids
motivated and involved. You will be amazed at how fast they will
learn, if steered in the proper direction. There is nothing about
being a particular skin color which affects intelligence, in spite of
any "Bell Curve" crapola you may have heard about. These kids
will prove this to the world, if only given the proper leadership.

73 de Larry, K3LT