This guy compares learning Morse code to learning a foreign language! How does learning the alphabet, numbers and a little punctuation compare to learning a language?
When I started over half of us built our own rigs, now it's probably 5%. When you were a kid few adults took you seriously or cared about your opinions. I joined a club, met all sorts of people. I became an expert on certain arcane parts of the hobby because they interested me. Suddenly when questions on this area of expertise came up I was the expert people four times my age consulted and this helped me gain self confidence. I also saw examples where not only age but race or sex just did not matter because we were all part of the ham radio fraternity.
I think we need to pitch ham radio as a worthwhile pursuit to those budding nerds. Pick up technical knowledge that could lead to a career in engineering. A social club where the work done to pursue membership had its rewards. A chance to compare yourself to others in competition. Not everyone is a natural born athlete but we all have a desire to compete in something and ham radio contests are a way to do it.