> Yes but at one time we would teach children how to compose a telegrams,
> where they would go to have one sent, how to calculate the costs and so
> forth, we no longer do that. It is a skill similar to to a host of others
> such as the handling of horses and wagons or the sailing of large ships
> under wind power which has been lost to all but a very few as the technology
> has vanished.
And what has changed over the years is the tool they use and what they have
to calculate. A child in 1940 might have had to calculate the cost of a
telegram and get the number of words down to what they could afford to send.
A student of mine ten years ago was given a $15 long distance calling card
to use to call her boyfriend in Brazil. All of a sudden she understood the
usefulness of knowing the algebra equation (learned out of context) that
would give her 1500=50+30y for the number of minutes she could afford to
talk to him. The student now, whose parents give her a cell phone with a
limited amount of calling hours each month before it shuts down, has to use
those same skills.
We may not need to handle large ships under *wind* power, but there are
still certain rules of the sea that remain, no matter what form of
propulsion is used.
And going back to Morse Code for a moment, think of how useful that form of
communication, antiquated even then, was to John McCain when he was a
prisoner of war.
nd wn u thnk f ecnmy f spc, tdys txt lngg s ystrdys mrs cd.
--
keg
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Keith E Gatling
mailto:keith@gatling.us
http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with you.
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