Quote:
Originally posted by Martin
The goal of FIRST is no longer to make peolpe happy, its $.
i have a feeling that the purpose is not to make that 16 yearold learn some fun technology, but instead it is to take that 16 year old, and use him as a number...saying that you tought him great things.
|
The goal of FIRST is not money and if you think that you should really consider why your in FIRST. FIRST's goal is, and always has been, to give kids a chance at something they may never experience otherwise. It's to teach them that you can do something with your knowledge and be considered awesome rather than being considered a nerd(in a derogatory manner). FIRST and its participants don't look at how much money you have or what your wearing but put everyone on an equal, rectangular, playing field. That is why FIRST is moving NATS. Disney, no matter how much I love them, were making it hard for teams to come, and creating an unfair advantage for teams with a lot of money. And when there are unfair advantages nobody is happy.
FIRST is not about numbers either because no matter how many people are in FIRST they all aren't there for the right reason. But if there is one person, just one, who was able to say to themselves "Hey I'm not stupid! I can do this, I helped build this amazing machine!", even if the robot doesn't make it to finals but moves. Then that is the best number. Trust me in my first year when I looked at our robot and said "Oh my gosh i did it, I helped create this awesome machine!" my mentors and engineers weren't pulling out pieces of paper and marking a number but smiling and celebrating with me. And last year when I was able to finish the animation, with the help of everyone I could talk to(speacial thanx Brad, Frank, and Sunny), nobody was putting me down as a number or even thinking my animation would do as well as it did. But they treated me like the other animators who received an honorable mention.
FIRST is about learning, and equality. Yes there is money involved but everything has money, even your sports. We are in the days of the broomstick bat because after this are much more complicated machines, that we create. More team building, and games that aren't for points but to reach another planet. I hope you can see this because the success of the students, teachers, mentors, and engineers are the real successes of FIRST. The success of saying "I did it!"
I did it! Thanks FIRST
~SHANA~