AF6AY wrote:

Since I've been involved in radio and electronics (one way or another)
for 6 decades, making the "Compleat Ham" (as Phil put it) just can't
be done in 18 hours. It would take at least a thousand hours, perhaps
two. Had it been that long a 'class' the drop-out rate would be
large.

"Compleat Hams" are not made in class. They are "made" by participating
in the hobby. Traditional classes should be a part of that
participation (I have little patience with the people who say, "I don't
have time to attend your class on emergency communication or participate
in your exercise, but I'll be around when there's a real emergency") but
experience is the real teacher. And you can't begin that experience
until you pass that first written test.

As you say, some aren't interested in theory, some are only
interested in certain aspects of radio. Those who only want VHF and
up operation probably could care less about the ionosphere and all
that long-distance propagation. But...the thing others haven't
mentioned or others just gloss over is that you HAVE some that are
interested enough to come for 18 hours.

One of the things that continues to amaze me about the hobby is that
it's not one hobby, but many. That's one of the things I hope to be
able to communicate to the students in the class . . . not by preaching
to them, but by describing the various aspects of the hobby (or by
having someone who is passionate about "their" aspect come to class and
expound on it). I do think that those who only want VHF should at least
be exposed to propagation and how it works; how can they know if they
might be interested in HF if they never even know it exists.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

The journey into the ham radio hobby begins with passing a written exam.

I suppose that's not really true. The journey begins with deciding to
take the journey. For these students, the "single step" is attending
this class. That fact sure puts the pressure on the instructor . . .

So far, the 'discussion' has been a lot of argument by others all
about stepping, which way to go, etc., etc., ad something or other. I
doubt that anything of that applies. They have taken the first nibble
of the bait and aren't yet hooked, but I sense you can play them in.

I hope so. Time will tell.

As a related comment . . . when I started this thread, one of the issues
I was trying to explore was walking the tightrope between "teaching the
pool" and teaching a general electronics class. As I continue to
prepare the details of the class, I'm realizing that teaching a concepts
class based on the pool questions isn't really that bad. If the
students come out of the class understanding the concepts upon which the
pool questions are based, they will have a pretty good start at an
electronics background.

There are some huge gaps, of course. For example, somehow the concept
of inductance doesn't appear at all. But after living with the pool for
a while, I feel better about using it as the basis for an 18-hour
introductory class.

I'm sure that some of the students will spend their study time
memorizing the specific questions from the pool. I hope that I have
some students who will embrace the concepts. All I can do is present
the material in the clearest and most engaging way that I can, let my
passion show through, and provide the mentoring and encouraging
environment to get them into the hobby.

Since I'm a bit far from you, I can't watch a rehersal of your
presentation and suggest some improvement, but maybe there's one or
more there who would be willing to stand in for the 'audience?' I
don't know how much experience you've had before such an audience but
I think you will get the feel of it right quick. You know the
material. The only thing left is letting your enthusiasm rub off on
the folks in class.

I don't mean this to be critical of your suggestion Len, but I'm
reminded of an article I saw last night on the network TV news. It
seems that FEMA decided to give a news conference, and when no reporters
showed up, FEMA employees pretended to be reporters and asked questions
of the FEMA presenter. I'm afraid that rehearsals of this class, which
would likely be held with members of the local radio club taking the
place of the students, would be a lot like that. It would certainly be
useful to do it, and I'm sure my presentation would benefit, but the
"audience" that I get for the real class is likely to be much different
from the "audience" that I would have in a trial run.

I think that the single biggest challenge I'm going to have is finding
the right "pitch point" for this class. I'm expecting to have a few
folks whose eyes glaze over as soon as I try to cover anything even
remotely difficult and a few who will think that my level of coverage is
much too general. Trying to keep the interest of the one group and not
bore the other is going to be a challenge. I hope I'm up to it.

73, Steve KB9X