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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
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Trumpy Offline OP
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Hold on a minute, I am not talking about the Personal Computer, although it has a real case to answer.
What I am talking about is Political Correctness, it is now not PC to allow your children, to run around and play in the mud and also so it seems, it is wrong to let them have a Chemistry set or a small set that teaches kids about Electronics, because of the inherent risk of injury, this is the new Commissioner for Children in NZ speaking.
Sorry that I have no E-mail link to this guy, but if I had one, I would be on to it, like a Doberman, to a piece of Steak.
What are your thoughts on this rubbish?.
Teach the kids Real Science, not the Cr*p, shoved down thier throats by PC teachers.

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
Good point Trumpy. When I was a kid (early-mid 1970s) the chemistry sets, junior radio kits etc. were quite popular. I had a "Junior Chemist" set when I was about 7 or 8, with all the usual sort of basic experimental stuff.

I never had one of the "99 Electronics Projects" types of kits, because I already had boxes full of old radio parts obtained from church jumble sales, a wonderful surplus parts shop in town, and various friends and neighbors who donated old unwanted equipment. I was playing around with batteries and bulbs from the age of about 6. I still remember building my first very simple radio at the age of 8, with some help from my father! (Thanks Dad, and to Mom for putting up with bits of wire and noises every weekend and listening to endless technical discussions over the dinner table -- I owe you both a lot!)

I remember using an Avo meter on live mains wiring and high voltages in tube radios under the supervision of my father from an early age. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that I knew enough not to get hurt on my own, and certainly by the time I was about 10 or 11 I was regularly diving into tube radios, tape recorders and so on by myself.

Sure, I could have gotten hurt. The only way to be sure of nothing bad ever befalling you is to never do anything.

The "PC brigade" these days would probably have fits at the things I was allowed to do (electrically wise). I wouldn't be surprised if some idiot social worker would decide it was cause to come breaking into the house at 6am with warrants for "child neglect" or whatever other ridiculous charges they could come up with.

I'm glad I was growing up 30 years ago, and not today. [Linked Image]

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 159
L
Member
I do a little tutoring for local colleges. New rule NO RED PEN MARKS FROM TEACHER! Why not? Well PC brigade feel it may have detremental effect on 20 year old students!


regards

lyle dunn
Joined: Jul 2002
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Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Lyle,
That is really ridiculous, if a 20 year old has not grown up enough, to realise the ways of the real world, what are they going to look like, at age 30.
But, this is the formulae of the PC people, no-one fails, you are given a Not Yet Competent mark, these days.
Lyle,
What is the standard Pass Mark required for a Registration as an Electrician, in Ireland?
Over here in NZ, it sank to 40%, only because the PC people said that the EWRB, should not excuse anyone because of thier inabilty to read the Regs.
Paul,
We all could have got "hurt", using our Chemistry sets and we could have got Electrocuted, had we plugged our projects, into the Mains.
But for God sakes, it's all common-sense, isn't it?.
Let's Get Real!!. [Linked Image]

Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
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C
C-H Offline
Member
I'm with you guys...

We made gunpowder and the like in chemistry class. Once I and a friend managed to fill the whole classroom with smoke from a petrol-soap mixture. (Cool high flames, too.) In physics the teacher connected one of the girls to a high-voltage source so that her hair stood out like on film... I hope they haven't changed anything!

I no longer have all the recipies for drugs and explosives that were passed among us pupils. I'm sure those politically correct people would object to people learning how to make everything from LSD to RDX... (I suspect the school would have, had they known.)

Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,691
S
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Quote
NO RED PEN MARKS FROM TEACHER! Why not? Well PC brigade feel it may have detremental effect on 20 year old students!

How am I supposed to know what my mistakes are? Red is easy to see when you're looking at a piece of paper covered in black or blue in.

Who exactly are these "PC" creeps? How dare they tell me I can't play around with chemistry sets, hi-voltage electricity, etc.

If I want to, I should be able to play with a block of URANIUM if I wanted to....I'm well aware of the consequences, thank-you-very-much, as long as I don't harm anyone else. [Linked Image]

Now I've really got a mind to dig up a neon sign transformer and build that Jacob's ladder!! [Linked Image]

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I think the "no red pen" rule was introduced into some schools here a few years ago. Teachers were instructed to use green instead, as being less likely to cause offense to students, or some such nonsense.

So next time you get a student in electrical class who decides that 240V into 10 ohms gives 2 amps, don't tell him he's wrong, just say he has "a unique perspective on the problem" so as not to cause him the terrible humiliation of getting his sums wrong. Utter nonsense.

I don't doubt this idiotic "no red" rule was dreamed up by the same group that decided it's wrong to tell a child that he's doing something naughty, as to do so might interfere with his natural development. Natural development into what? A young punk teenager who has no respect for anything or anybody and thinks he can just do what he likes? [Linked Image]

Sven,
Judging by your post, I think you may like this quote. It's from a British author (no, not me!) who regularly writes an antique radio column. One month he recounted all sorts of experiments he did as a young teenager with the DC mains supply in his house during WWII. He ended with this:
Quote

I bet that if DC mains still existed that there would be a million EC regulations as to what one may, or may not do with them in one's own home. I would take the greatest pleasure in breaking every last one of them!

He too mentioned what the modern-day PC brigade would probably think of a kid experimenting in this way today.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 03-10-2003).]

Joined: Jul 2002
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Trumpy Offline OP
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Paul,
Why does that photo that you posted, sometime ago of a busted-up trailer-home, spring up in my mind?.
This may be the cause!. [Linked Image]

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
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Yes, the mobile home incident is a good example. We mentioned the lack of discipline in that thread too.

BTW, I hear that a couple of those young hoodlums have started causing trouble again.

Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 177
B
Member
It makes you wonder who educates who, nowadays!

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