Margy Natalie writes:

Damned but I hate to agree. Athough I think much of the computer craze
is now a cause. They are very attractive and everyone has one and they
are right there.

I'm sure people said the same thing about telephones and electricity in their
early days.

It should also be kept in mind that, like telephones and electricity,
computers are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Working on a
computer could mean just about anything, since anything that involves
information can be put on a computer. So a kid could be looking for porn, or
doing research for school, or reading about sports, or learning calculus.
Just because he does it with a computer doesn't make it good or bad, any more
than having electricity in the house is good or bad.

Couple that with "don't go out until I get home from
work", "No friends over until I get home from work", etc. and you have
the perfect set up for computer kids.

True.

A friend who is a professor of
mechanical engineering summed it up quite well, she said, "computers
have been a leveler, it used to be girls couldn't DO anything, now no
one can DO anything". Refering of course to those basic skills our kids
no longer have (cutting, sawing, soldering, attaching, etc.).

There is less and less need for those skills, since most items today are
manufactured by semi-automated production lines. The average person will
never need to saw or solder anything, so the skill is not useful, and he won't
miss it if he doesn't have it.

I always had a model club at school and lots of people thought I was
nuts letting kids (7th and 8th graders) near exacto knives, etc. I
didn't have on injury (but I did lay the law down pretty thick).

If there had been an injury you would have been bankrupted by a lawsuit. You
were very brave.

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