On 12/5/2017 3:58 PM, Clifford Heath wrote:
> On 05/12/17 14:48, harry newton wrote:
>> He who is Oren said on Mon, 04 Dec 2017 14:54:05 -0800:
>>
>>> It really is a shame when college kids can't fix a scratchy sounding
>>> speaker. A speaker smarter than a snowflake. with a safe place.
>>
>> The whole family is girls.
>
> All the more reason to encourage them to learn to make and fix stuff.
> Geek girls rock!

My wife, before we were married, installed a car stereo in her car. My
daughter is very good with that kind of stuff. In the Americorp
organization she joined after college, they do outdoor education and
they train everyone in the use of power tools and in construction
techniques. I helped out last weekend building garden beds. I pre-cut
all the lumber and brought it. Her fellow volunteers were very good at
putting the whole thing together, drilling, screwing pieces together,
and understanding the whole design. I don't know if they could have
planned the whole design and done it in a way that minimized lumber
costs, and that did not depend on the fasteners for structural
integrity. OTOH, my son was never into any of this kind of stuff.

My belief is that the lack of mechanical ability among many youth and
adults is based on two things:

1. Japanese cars. Far fewer mechanical breakdowns and less maintenance
led to the end of dads spending time with their kids showing them how to
change oil, plugs, points, rotors, and adjust timing on high-maintenance
vehicles. The whole skill set of using tools and fixing cars was lost.
Car maintenance teaches skills that are transferable to many other
applications.

2. Immigrants from countries with low-cost labor. My Indian friend told
me that it took a lot of getting used to life in the U.S. because in
India even middle class people have multiple servants to help out, i.e.
cooks, cleaners, gardeners, drivers, etc.. In China, labor is so cheap
that the middle class hires laborers and there is no "do-it-yourself"
mentality, it is viewed as demeaning to do home improvements like
painting or fixing plumbing problems. In the U.S., skilled and unskilled
labor is expensive so the "do-it-yourself" mentality and infrastructure
developed.