Hi.

This is straying a little off topic, but I had to respond to Brett's 
point.  I will grant that there is some things that many people would find 
complex about testing in our current education system, but where I fault 
the American education system is that it does not adequately address the 
basics--that every person who graduates has good general reading skills, 
and that people can still do basic math without the aid of a 
calculator.  Probably most people under thirty don't even think that is 
important, but I've had the experience of having to try to deal with 
someone in a checkout situation who couldn't get the answer out of the 
machine and couldn't figure it out for themselves.  It is kind of fun 
though to stand there in line and calculate the sales tax while they are 
trying to punch it into the register and then hand them the exact change as 
soon as they spit out the answer.  I usually get a response like "How did 
you know?"

I think it is this kind of lack of attention to basics and the willingness 
to rely too much on the machine that is the basis for the feelings that I 
see being expressed here.

Whether one compares the CW argument to this type of thing is probably a 
source of endless debate, and my own personal opinion is the CW is still a 
mode of operation worth possessing expertise in because of its weak signal 
capabilities, but in my opinion, it is probably not as important as some of 
the basic education problems in this country.

Were it left up to me, I probably would leave the requirements in for 
Extra, but allow them to be removed from the General class so that people 
who do not wish to do CW can get a full experience of HF phone, anyway.

I am sure that there are those out there who would not be satisfied with 
that, and fortunately for those guys, they won out, so it doesn't really 
matter.

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 11:52 AM 12/18/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>Phil, et al.,
>
>I am not so sure I agree with you as after seeing some of the required
>testing for high school graduation I am sure I would need to do some
>studying first as not all the answers are self evident nor were they
>reasonably close  to memory recall that they easily could be answered.
>And this all this after completing college and who knows how much
>additional training since. =20
>
>Oh yes the GPA was above average here. =20
>
>
>
>BRETT WINCHESTER
>[log in to unmask]
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: For blind ham radio operators
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
>Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 11:02 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The joy of C W
>
>Ed,
>
>You've got a good point there, especially when we have people graduating
>from high school who can't read.  That's why I say that I am afraid that
>within my life time, the FCC might even ban the CW mode.
>
>Phil.
>K0NX

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753