The Sad State of Young People Today

Editor,

Recently I taught a model aviation class at a local university as part of a “College for Kids” program. The name would imply that the students might be of a higher maturity level than their age group as a whole, but that does not appear to be true. The struggles that anyone must have in mentoring today’s youth became quickly apparent to me. No wonder math and science scores in the US are lower than other countries when our young people have so much trouble concentrating on anything that is even slightly serious.

This is the third year I have taken vacation time from work to teach this class. Enrollment has doubled from the first year from six to twelve. The first year I had another experienced airplane modeler helping. This year, with twice as many students, I struggled by myself. I have taught other model airplane classes, also, and feel I am improving both my teaching skills and creating a more interesting class. This is something I feel strongly about that it is a very positive and fun experience for young people. There seems to be a real thrill building a model plane and experiencing the plane flying well because of what you have learned.

What seems to be taking away from this positive experience is the poor behavior that a large portion of the young people displays. The constant talking and goofing off make it so difficult for an amateur instructor like me to conduct the class. I relayed my experiences through an electronic mailing list for model airplane enthusiasts. The feedback I received, even from experienced classroom teachers, was basically that they had the same issues when putting on the model airplane classes.

What really concerns me is that young people will miss out on valuable mentoring opportunities they could be receiving because adults don’t want to have to deal with their rude and rowdy behavior.

Bill Kuhl

Bill, I have experienced the same problem, and it should be a major concern. Thanks for staying the course. You are a positive influence on at least some of these students. Editor.

More Bad News About Buying Science Supplies

Editor,

It looks like my attempts to do science are more limited than I thought. I tried earlier today to order some microscope stains but was turned down because my company is in a residential area. I guess that other members in your group will be limited to growing sugar and salt crystals.

Howard McPherson

Better News About Buying Science Supplies

Editor,

I found some good lab equipment on ebay, including a large incubator, a binocular microscope, a centrifuge and some glassware. I used Fisher Scientific as well.

I ran into a snag when it came to buying live micro-organisms, but prevailed when I included Bentham Institute for Basic Research under our existing corporation as a financially self-sustaining business-bio-research entity.

Dolores Bentham

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