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wrote:
Bob:

I am very happy you are not here mis-educating my kids. Notice that it
is not the lawyers who produce economic growth but is the technical
immigrants who do. Lawyers are necessary just as are convenience store
clerks but engineers actually cause the economy to grow.

Only if the company they work for expends the capitol so they can
produce....and listens to them when they do produce something that
is viable...
Left to
themselves, all lawyers would grow is mountains of paperwork.
I always learned very poorly from texts and very well from the real
world. A real world example where your life depends on it teaches far
more than any textbook.

Everyone has a different learning curve. Some people, like
yourself, learn better in a real world-hands on approach. Some
learn better by repetition and mnemonic devices. Some read and
absorb like sieves. You can not apply one learning model to
everyone. It will not work.
Of course we will never see popular shows about scientists and
engineers because these people deal with abstract concepts that cannot
be easily shown on TV.

Most science fiction contains scientists busy at what they do.
Jules Verne, 2 centuries ago, portrayed scientists and what they did
in his books and most of what he wrote about has come true in one
way or another. The recent interest in some of the cable
televisions shows points to scientific methods being used to test
things for veracity, strength, etc. I can't remember the name of
the one that builds robotic animals to see which would win in a
fight. And then there's the one that proves or disproves whether
something will work or not. I think that one is "Urban Legends".
"CSI Las Vegas" is about scientists in a field of study that up
until the last two decades was relatively ignored., and has led
evening viewing for the last 4 years or so. Now everyone knows what
DNA testing can and cannot prove. People do watch the NASA feeds on
C-span and they do watch Discovery and National Geographic Channel,
which both carry programs about scientists and scientific method.
Lawyers by nature are "people persons" whereas
scientists are oblivious to people.

Bah...not true. My Dad was a meteorologist. His brother was a
botanist. I had an uncle who was a chemist and another that was an
entomologist. All of them were very aware of other people and were
not isolated individuals. My husband was an engineer for 25 years
(he has now returned to his original profession of teaching earth
and environmental science) and I have known many other engineers
over the years. Your wide assertions are just that. Wide
assertions that bear little truth.
I am so bad with people that
someone at a cocktail party could introduce themselve to me and then 5
minutes later do it again under a different name and I would never know
it.

That has little to do with your being an engineer and a lot to do
with your personality and maybe your lack pf manners?
I do well to recognize my own wife and kids.

Lucky them.