On Sunday, August 4, 2013 5:45:44 PM UTC-4, Hils wrote:
On 2013-08-04 20:03, Michael Black wrote:

And like I said, that's some of the hype of the maker movement, more

people can follow instructions, but it doesn't raise them up.



I've been going through old magazines, a local bookstore having found a

stash of them. The skill level to build the projects was much higher

than in "Make", but it was a whole wide field. "Build a two man sub for

about $400" says an article in Popular Science from about 1968. YOu

can't tell me the kids have invented something new when building things

had such a large infrastructure decades ago.



My father had been a mechanical engineer during WW2, and my older

brother's first jobs had been in engineering and later aerospace. My

father started teaching me maths and engineering when I was about four,

but I think he became rather disillusioned when I started school and

they insisted on teaching me their curriculum at their speed. Still,

between them they'd taught me to solder before I left primary school,

and I'd been repairing radio receivers for years before I eventually got

an amateur radio licence.



My uncles seemed to be forever discussing engines and how to get the

best performance from them. My brother bought Practical Wireless and

Practical Electronics, and occasionally Short Wave Magazine and Wireless

World, I remember one PE project that stuck in my mind was a home-made EEG.



The young people closest to me now have piano lessons, violin lessons,

ballet, yoga, rugby and cricket lessons, but they're learning no

practical skills because their parents (about the same age as me) have

almost none themselves. My mother's sewing machine rarely seemed to stop

working; their mother buys everything off-the-shelf and replaces rather

than repairs. Their father collects electric guitars, but he pays a

technician to modify and repair them and refuses all my attempts to

teach him basic electronics and soldering. When his electronic car key

stopped working recently he paid £200 for a replacement.



People generally have become users not makers. I sometimes feel an

anachronism.

This is probably the biggest problem in most advanced countries today- young people cannot do /make anything . Very disturbing, to say the least...