I don't understand all the "you never know how someone might react in an emergency, so why bother training people?" arguments. It certainly is true that anyone can panic in an emergency, and you never really know how someone will react until it happens to them. Still, someone who has training is, frankly, less likely to panic. It certainly is no guarantee, but half the reason people panic is because they simply don't know what to do.

Everyone on the plane takes a risk that the folks in the exit rows are clear-minded enough to do what's expected of them in a real emergency. We have no guarantee of that now, under the current "catch as catch can" system (or, really, lack of a system). So what's wrong with increasing the chances that someone in the seat actually knows what to do?