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Author Topic: Kids and Youngsters  (Read 13812 times)

JayDee

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Kids and Youngsters
« on: August 08, 2015, 08:10:46 pm »

Hello,

Today I have been at a Traction Engine and Steam fair, displaying model boats with our Boat Club.
Good selection of boats to see, all sizes, Steam, Sail and Power.

My J Class was on its stand, with a gang of young boys - - - with Parents, all looking and asking questions.
The main question during the day was "Where did you get the Boat from ?".

My answer was " I made it ".

To my complete amazement, they did not understand my answer !!!!!.
I tried to explain what "making things" entailed, I may as well have been speaking Greek -  - they did not understand what I was on about !!.
One boy, 11 years old, stood back and said " Look at the size of it - - it must have come in a big box !!"
This was said about the J Class - - - 6 feet long and nearly 8 feet tall!.
The boys Grandfather just shrugged his shoulders and said he had given up !.

Has anyone else come across this ?, are youngsters not making anything?, do they just buy things?.
What are they going to be doing in say, 20 years time?.
A rather worrying thought!.
 
John,  {:-{
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Liverbudgie2

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2015, 08:55:17 pm »

John,

Lots of kids do make things - just not the things we used to make; in the future I expect to see many things designed on a 'puter using 3D software and then sent to a printer. The days of actually making "things" by hand either as a hobby or in manufacturing processes are diminishing rapidly - it's called progress.
The upside though is those with the skills to actually make "things", using their hand's and actual tools will become more in demand and earn correspondingly higher wages, as they will be so rare just like watch and clockmakers and those who know how to process monochrome films and prints using traditional methods for instance.

I wonder who I can be thinking of here. O0

LB
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Positive

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2015, 09:14:55 pm »

It isn't really progress though, is it?      I am finding young people mostly have no interest whatsoever in model ships.    The obsession with mobiles is alarming, and getting worse.
Glad I was born in 1944 and not ten years ago.
Bob
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JayDee

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2015, 10:10:57 pm »

Hello LB,

Perhaps this ability to make things, which Model Makers have, and youngsters seem to be lacking in, is why the Ages of model makers is increasing.
Lots of model clubs seem to have older members - - not many youngsters!.

Does this mean that in 20 years or so, there will be NO Model Makers???.
Perish the thought !!!.

John.
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Stavros

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2015, 10:17:04 pm »

quite right Jay Dee ask a youngster these days what a tenon saw is for and they will look at you daft and come out with OH what game is that then.
Next door's son was gobsmacked when I showed him some of the boats and even his father who is a chippy was gobsmacked when he saw me bending wood the other day with a kettle and a plank with nails in it


Dave
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JayDee

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2015, 10:24:55 pm »

Hello,

I am back at the same Show again tomorrow.
Same spot, same boat - - will NOT be speaking to any Kids!!!!.

This has left me quite upset.

John,  :((  :((  :((
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Stavros

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2015, 10:28:21 pm »

Take a packet of SWEETS with you and hand them out to the kids,that will get them on your side lol


Dave
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JayDee

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2015, 10:31:24 pm »

Hello

 Will let you know how I get on, over and out !!.

john.
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tony23

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2015, 10:37:53 pm »

we have a good few youngsters in the NLMES club mostly interested in the live steam locos, the kids are about I sail my model boats at 3 Rivers in Rickmansworth and it's interesting to note how many kids are sailing dinghys like lots not all kids have there faces in there phones!
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TheLongBuild

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2015, 11:07:18 pm »

Jaydee in shock !!

Liverbudgie2

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2015, 12:04:59 am »

Hello,

I am back at the same Show again tomorrow.
Same spot, same boat - - will NOT be speaking to any Kids!!!!.

This has left me quite upset.

John,  :((  :((  :((

Don't so defeatist. Many young people still want to know how to do things. It's for you and the rest of us, to talk to them in a way that they understand and if they don't, find a way to explain what it is they want to know in a different, more simple, if necessary way; learning is a two way street you know.

LB
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JayDee

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2015, 12:11:21 am »

Hello LB,

That is SO easy to say.

John.
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w3bby

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2015, 12:33:02 am »

A story board with pictures of the process would help you a lot... Or a looping video of the same pictures or an electronic presentation... Lots of things to activate the triggers of learning in the young minds of today....

Without meaning to be rude, a crusty old geezer saying "I made it" doesn't spark the young minds of the visual and interactive age.

Peter Fitness

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2015, 03:23:37 am »

I have done up some sheets of photos of some of my models at various stages of their construction and laminated them. When our club does displays I place them alongside the relevant model so people can gain an understanding of the processes involved. They have proved very helpful, and I have received many positive comments.


Peter.
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derekwarner

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #14 on: August 09, 2015, 03:38:19 am »

I think the Jury is still out on this one  :o................the younger generation gen Y? or is it Y or Z?  %% ....seem to need near instant gratification  >>:-(.......Derek
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tigertiger

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2015, 06:00:33 am »

It is not all doom and gloom.
http://www.makerfaireuk.com/about/
http://makerversity.org/
http://makezine.com/



The maker movement is growing in the public domain and in education around the world. Yes it does use modern materials and tools like cnc cutters and 3 d printers, but so do many other hobbyists in carpentry and modelling. It also encourages creativity using software, as well has hammers and saws.
There is more interest now as people have more time to do things (including hobbies) and less money to pay someone else to do it.
Maker faires can be found in many parts of the world now. A big area of interest is building controllable robots, certainly one of my dreams as a boy in the 1960s.

We are also seeing more people becoming interested in making their own food again. I think that 30 years ago we would have laughed at the notion that one of the prime time TV shows would be about making bread (Paul Hollywood), and another about making cakes (Great Br Bake Off). The huge interest in brewing craft beers has even spread to China.
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tigertiger

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2015, 06:04:05 am »

A story board with pictures of the process would help you a lot... Or a looping video of the same pictures or an electronic presentation... Lots of things to activate the triggers of learning in the young minds of today....

Without meaning to be rude, a crusty old geezer saying "I made it" doesn't spark the young minds of the visual and interactive age.


I couldn't agree more. A picture paints a thousand words.
I am sure that the build logs at the engineering shows get rifled by interested parties.


I am sure if people did a stop motion animation of the build log kids would be amazed. I have seen this done for a build log of a full size wooden sail boat somewhere.
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malcolmfrary

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #17 on: August 09, 2015, 10:21:14 am »

My club does a few static shows over the year at local venues when we get invited.  Yes a lot of youngsters are unaware that things are made (even things that come of a shop shelf in a box) - so are a lot of adults.  But a few show signs of interest.  They might not go away wanting to make a boat, but they might just go away with the urge to make something, rather than being the totally passive consumers that "the system" wants us all to be.
If you can strike a few sparks over the year, you never know, you might just get a fire going.
For those of us who sail in public parks, it is a fact that every time we sail we are actually putting on a show.  I think you really have to be prepared to talk with passers by who quite possibly have been taught to think that everything is CGI.  I get the impression in my area that a lot of people who wander the park are management consultants and financial advisers whose physical technical abilities end with opening a matchbox and not spilling matches all over the floor.  But you never know, a very few might suddenly get the urge to unleash a well suppressed latent talent.  A lot will fall on stony ground, but some might land on fertile ground and grow.
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U-33

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #18 on: August 09, 2015, 11:17:44 am »

Explain how you built the boat in an email or a text message?
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Rich

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Nemo

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #19 on: August 09, 2015, 11:58:38 am »

My club does a few static shows over the year at local venues when we get invited.  Yes a lot of youngsters are unaware that things are made (even things that come of a shop shelf in a box) - so are a lot of adults.  But a few show signs of interest.  They might not go away wanting to make a boat, but they might just go away with the urge to make something, rather than being the totally passive consumers that "the system" wants us all to be.
If you can strike a few sparks over the year, you never know, you might just get a fire going.
For those of us who sail in public parks, it is a fact that every time we sail we are actually putting on a show.  I think you really have to be prepared to talk with passers by who quite possibly have been taught to think that everything is CGI.  I get the impression in my area that a lot of people who wander the park are management consultants and financial advisers whose physical technical abilities end with opening a matchbox and not spilling matches all over the floor.  But you never know, a very few might suddenly get the urge to unleash a well suppressed latent talent.  A lot will fall on stony ground, but some might land on fertile ground and grow.

I entirely agree. The more we display our efforts, the more chance there is of 'lighting the spark of interest' in our hobby.  I sail at least 2 of my boats most weekends at lakes in two large town parks with hundreds of passers-by and the attention I get is enormous, almost too much in fact at times as the questions and chatting eat into sailing time or spoil concentration. I think we are all aware of the same old questions asked on these occasions and I would guess that 'How do I start making models like that?' is well down the list of -
Did you make it yourself? How much did it cost?(!!!!!!) %) How fast does it go? Are you going to put it in the water? What if it gets stuck in the middle? Where can I buy one? etc
Still, I do get asked the main question and this shows that the spark is there somewhere and we must patiently help them on the way.   
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U-33

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2015, 01:04:15 pm »

Then never, ever sail a sub in public...the usual question is : "is that a submarine?" to which the answer is "yes".
Next question is :  "does it go underwater?" to which the answer is "yes".


Next question is always  "how deep will it go?" to which the answer is "all the way to the bottom".


At that point 99% of would be questioners walk away. Those that remain normally ask sensible questions and receive sensible answers.


Bless their little cotton undies...
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Rich

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Bob K

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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #21 on: August 09, 2015, 01:27:02 pm »

At our club we get large numbers of families with young kids who all show intense fascination in the many model boats, both on the water and on the bank.  There really should be a way to develop that interest into actually making one for themselves (or more practically their parents making one for them).  After all most of these parents have already showed their building skills by converting model boat transporters into young people carriers.
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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #22 on: August 09, 2015, 06:35:51 pm »

If anyone is at fault it is society as a whole that has allowed the imagination and independance of children to be eroded to the point of mediocrity.

Parents are bombarded with media fears about paedophiles around every corner and we drive too fast down over parked streets so that kids cannot play outside except in restrictive back gardens.

Schools are so safety consious that I have heard of examples where stanley knife blades are 'pre' blunted so that pupils cannot cut themselves(?) and the media/advertising frenzy tells us that we need a new mobile smart phone before the old one even has a scratch on it. Add to this the availability of instant online marketing and computer design becoming the norm, I can see why some children just cannot comprehend that you can build a model ship as well as buy a whole ready to use one.

And these are parents of children- the second generation. Their parents were the first with mobile phones, the Internet was starting to open up to the ability for selling anything and everything from anywhere online, and Compuer design capability was already well enough advanced to have generated second or third generation drawing programs. This was the late ninties!

I understand people's irritation caused by silly questions. Of course a bloody submarine will sink to the bottom, and of course the boat sat near to a pond with you holding a transmitter is going to be put in the water. To many it is obvious, but to some, atuned to a diet of virtual and all action instantness, it is all too slow and out of their context.

There is a sort of rennaissance already in youngsters, some of which play the World of Tanks/Warplanes type semi/simulator games that use historical equipment. I have first hand experienced a boy of ten identify a 'Hawk 75' Aircraft. I would have expected him to ID a Spitfire and maybe a Lancaster bomber, both icons, but an early war export to France during the German invasion in may1940? Hell, I hadn't heard of the machine unti a few months before and I am a dyed in the wool glue spiller and plastic whittler!

There is hope, but it needs all of us to do our best, accept some incredulity and we might, just might halp return our youngsters to making something with their hands. Fingers crossed!
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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #23 on: August 09, 2015, 07:03:14 pm »

Did you make it yourself? How much did it cost?(!!!!!!) %) How fast does it go? Are you going to put it in the water? What if it gets stuck in the middle? Where can I buy one? etc
Still, I do get asked the main question and this shows that the spark is there somewhere and we must patiently help them on the way.   

....and the one other question we get asked (and not just by youngsters either) "How long did it take to build"? O0
 
Just be honest with the answer and you'll soon see whether they're interested or not :-))
 
I guess we should also bear in mind that some young people have to do a lot of studying outwith their schooltime and, of course, there's the peer pressure to consider..... ;)
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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Re: Kids and Youngsters
« Reply #24 on: August 09, 2015, 07:21:38 pm »

Please don't hold your breath. No discipline in schools or at home the word "RESPECT" does no longer exist! talk to any Police community officer and listen to their comments such you can't touch me I am underage and your not a real Police officer.
     As a boy of nine I gave a load of cheek to our local bobby who promptly, quite rightly, clipped me round the ear. Went home made the stupid mistake of telling my dad and guess what? another clip round the ear. Nowadays you cannot even shout at your own children in case its not politically correct or you are invading their human rights. I am so glad that I was born in an age where you had to respect your elders.
    Faz. <*< <*< <*< <*< <*< <*< <*<
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