Let me suggest another possible reason why students do not interact with
the real world as much as they used to: complexity. They now grow up in
homes that have such complex devices, including their toys that they either
don't dare or aren't allowed to take them apart to see why they work. I
recall frequently dismantling things around my house, including, at one
point (without benefit of an autoshop course) rebuilding the carburator on
my jalopy. (Naturally, I had a few pieces left over.) Today's cars don't
even have a carburator! Instead they have a collection of electronic
devices that are so complicated/expensive, that the auto mechanics don't
even know how to fix them. All they can do is "remove and replace." Even
little children's toys are now too complicated for the kids to dismantle,
and requently, even if they can dismantle them without totally destroying
them, what they see are more incomprehensible electronic parts.
As a young adult (too many years ago), I felt that I could do almost all of
the repairs that were needed around my house. Now many of them involve
either mechanical or electronic components that are far beyond my
capability to repair and I am forced to call the "professional" repair
person who, far too often, is only able to locate which sub-unit of the
appliance has malfunctioned and "remove and replace."
It would seem that complexity of our world is increasing geometrically,
while our ability to cope with it is increasing only arithmetically, to
paraphrise Malthus.
The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
********************************************************************************