Books I'm talking!.
When was the last time that kids were given books as a present?.
As opposed to a Playstation or anything else like it.
If I had never been given books as a young fella, I would never have thought outside of the circle.
Science books, of course this was 25 odd years ago, but not only did it help my thinking, but it also helped my spelling.
How many kids these days could spell Photosynthesis, without having to think about it?.
I personally think we've gone backwards over the last few years.
TV in general has a LOT to answer for.
Your opinions?.

I couldn't agree more Trumpy ! My 2 girls have always had books to read ! We bought them,borrowed them, traded them , but they always had books.
When the girls where just little we took them to the public library to get their own library card, Then we made regular trips for them to use it ! Now they are 21 and 16 and guess what? To this day they still go to the library to get get books to read. It is not uncommon to see all of us sitting in the living room reading. The playstations and nitendos in my house gather dust. We even have them interested in the discovery channel and the history channel.

Mike, I absolutely agree. It irritates me to no end to see kids sitting in front of either of these on a nice day when they should be outside playing, exploring, and in general getting some exercise. (I know sometimes there might be a legitamate reason)

Re: the books, it's a shame that many have never experienced being so engulfed in a story and it's characters in a book that they can't put it down, or that they might be digging hard in a reference book to find some information and that simply turning a page leads them into another educational journey they hadn't even thought of.

BTW, I do know there is educational value to some TV and electronic games, but books should not be forgotten.

Roger

Thanks Ken and Roger,
To be honest, the first book that I ever bought out of my own pocket-money and (I had to save up for it) was a Ladybird book called Build Your Own Transistor Radio, PaulUK will know the book series I'm talking about, I still have it to this day.
That was back in the early 80's, but viva the book!!.
Of course radio's were built when the weather was too sour to catch fish and and go hunting with your air-rifle.
My father will attest to all the long-wire antennas around the place.
I feel sorry for all the Secondary windings of a LOT of TV transformers that lost wire in all of my antenna experiments.
Apparently my father is still finding copper wire in the trees.
That was another thing, climbing trees, you don't see kids doing that any more do you?.


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 08-27-2005).]

Always had my head in a book, never thrown a book out, got literally hundreds of 'em, from Biggles to Machinery Handbook to 'Le Petomaine' ( 19th C. French guy who fa*ted to music in the theatre, honest! ). Nothing better, sitting up in bed, cup of tea, her with a novel, me with something light, like my present book on HVAC systems published in the States by McGraw Hill in 1912!
Alan

Kids - Outside - Playing ?? What are ya crazy ?
I remember growing up - we would rush to get our chores done then outside it was all day ! Had to be dragged in at night.
I have nephews that didn't even know there was a stream within a 3 minute walk from their house, but they can explain everything you could want to know about every computer game out there. What a shame.
When I bring this subject up , I am told I am old fashioned.
Old Fashioned at 40 can't wait to see what 50 is ?

Mike,
First book purchased was the, Radio Amatures Handbook, with my paper route money, back then we built most of our equipment, power supply, cw transmitter, and receiver, but the missing item an antenna, came from reading a monthly publication, QST, i read an article on building a beer can antenna, went to every pub in town, gathering empty beer cans, then with 2lbs. of solder, i assembled 54 beer cans, to make a vertical antenna for 40 meters, there was no such thing as Google it, back then, books and mentors, were the only way to get the information.

I lived out in the sticks so I was either reading or outside if it wasn't bed time. My Mom bought me the classics (Illiad/Odyssey/Ptolemy/Pliny) before I was even in High School. I read The King Hereafter about ten times in the space of three years. My kids are going to get the same treatment too. They are a bit young for some of the Greek and Roman mythology stories though.

I have read Beowulf and some of Havamal and of course The Lord of the Rings. They love it. It also gets there imagination going and they started writing little stories of their own.

If you can get them started young they will usually read all their lives. As the saying goes "Learn as if you will live forever."

Robert

The worst shame ever is when a city lets itself become overrun with crime and drugs. As a kid, I grew up in the projects, and I was never allowed outside until I was 10. Even then, I didn't like to go outside because I would get beat up for my skin color, social standing (I was prety shy), and whatever excuse someone could come up with to beat me up. I ended up spending all my time inside reading, which wasn't bad, but I never got to go get the excercise and experience the woods and stuff. I would sit inside all day, reading about electricity, building my own litle circuits (my favorite was when I strung wire all over the apartment to make a better antenna... we had picked up cable TV (I used part 15b of the FCC rules "this device must accept interference, including that which may caused undesired operation"... it said including, but not "limited to."
Now the crime is getting worse throughout the city. It makes me angry that smart, hard-working people have to put up with it. It makes me even angrier that kids have less of a chance to grow up to be smart, hard-working people. I agree that children must be given the opportunity to read; they will be able to think for themselves, and be a little bit smarter... hopefully smart enough to get the he** away from here.

I couldn't agree with you more, I'm in highschool and I'm amazed at how often in English class while reading out loud to the class 15 and 16 year old's stumble over relatively simple words, and grammer is getting worse and worse, especially in the on-line culture of teen's where people mangle the English language into something someone from 20 years ago could barely understand.

As to the prevalence of TV and video games I used to watch hours of them from ages 5-9 at which point my reading skills progressed enough to where I'd rather read a novel than sit in front of the boob toob, but even in my football locker room filled with athletic kids all the talk is about what shows were on last night and the latest video games, they VERY rarely go out of the house except for school work or sports, it's a sad state of affairs

Like the therad!

I was reading adult level in the first grade (remember Dick, Jane, and Spot? Yikes!) I made crystal radios from library books at 5 or 6 yrs. old. No diode; the detector was made from a pencil lead on a blue razor blade.

(Okay, I made them from wire and parts; I learned how from books.)

My son, who will be 18 in two weeks (Yikes again!), read Green Eggs and Ham to his pre-school class when he was 4! How? "Hooked on Dad", that's how. Every day was a chance to teach him something.

He could do multiple-column addition at 5, too. He thought carrying to the next column was such an interesting concept back then, and adjusted to borrowing for subtraction quite well.

He is still an avid reader. His last book was The DaVinci Code, and he loved it. I don't have the patience to read novels, but I read a dozen or so technical magazines monthly, and keep a copy of the NEC with me at all times.

I also agree with all of you and did something about it years ago.

I actually bought my two sons computers instead of Nintendo or X Box. We played some games together at night via our network but most of their computer time was spent either learning to program and create their own games, or doing homework.

Today my oldest is finializing his PHD from Standford in Mechcanical Engineering while my youngest is in his junior year at Berkeley studing Bio-Engineering. Both kids with above "A" GPA.

I just love to read!!

i dont now take a book to the jobsite as i never seemed to get any work done!!!

i read alot of Sci Fi and fantasy, and of course any technical manual going, also the local Newspaper in the evening and a couple of magazines.

i suppose its just how i was raised really.
out as soon as my homework/chores were done into the wooded area around our old house.

kids these days do not know they are born.

and i am only just nearing the good old 40 years, am i getting old? who cares!

Britspark

I spent hours doing that when I was kid, maybe thats why I'm not afraid of heights. We had 2 huge Maples in the front yard. They hung out over Main street. We could sit up there in the summer and no one could see you if you didn't want them to. Much fun.
Not sure my step son has ever climbed a tree

I have couple things to add- my school district and my highschool especially put a HUGE emphasis on reading, you must read and you must be able to comprehend novels to graduate, unfortunately the internet has made cheating exceedingly easy, many kids never do a single book report in highschool , it's all downloaded from the internet.
and on a scary note: some highschool aged kids don't know what the Holocaust was and MOST have no idea what the Cold War was....