Quote:
Originally posted by Koko Ed
I truly hope that FIRST does not get that way because the day they do I will walk away from it and never look back.
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Looking at how much the program cost teams to build a robot and compete at competitions, and the format of the competition, EVEN if there is a team in every high school around the country, there won't be enough room on the team to allow EVERYONE in the school to join the team. It's kinda like we would love to have 1 teacher per students, but we will never have enough teachers or money to do that.
Maybe it’s something about what we saw FIRST done in students that gave us hope that maybe there is for education after all. That's it, isn't it? When we see students who never did well in school suddenly take an interest in science and engineering, and started to get A's at their classes, we can't help but feel, "Maybe this is a better form of education than we're used to."
Only, it's not that simple. We cannot expect programs like FIRST to fix everything there is in the current education system. They can HELP inspire kids into science, technology, and engineering, but they cannot replace the education system to teach kids to be better people... Not at the cost of the competition right now.
You see, a feeling I get about FIRST after many years in it is that some how some of the people don't expect students to participate in the competition to get inspired. They think as long as the students get to go watch the competitions, they will get inspired/interested to go into science/technology/engineering majors. Kinda like thinking that a TV show, or a movie, or a demonstration can be shown to thousands and thousands of people and benefit them all. Of course, not everyone thinks that, and the groups I've been with think opposite of that and believe students participation in the competition is crucial to being able to inspire and educate them about being better people.
I am not sure if there is ANYONE who actually thinks what I said above about students participation isn't needed for inspiration, but some how I get the feeling that some do think that after hearing what was said among FIRSTers. But it’s certainly not what I believe in. Some say FIRST isn't about education at all... Well, I guess it was silly of me that I actually kinda did, and have been trying to search for a better education system.
You see, I am disgusted by how some of the existing education systems out that did horribly to teach kids to become better people. I've suffered in Hong Kong education for 11 years, and zero minute of have those years I’ve learned anything I care about. I was lectured at in different facts, and told to memorize stuff that's supposed to be useful but never have a chance to use in real life other thank home work assignments, and I didn't care any bit about anything when I left Hong Kong. The American education system is way better than what I had in Hong Kong, but again, I was told I have to study for SATs, and take AP tests, and get lectured at things and do homework assignments even though I never use those things in my real life here in the US as well.
I asked a bunch of people, and they all say they don't use most of what they learn in high school after they grew up and started working. That's not saying they didn't use the English they were taught, or basic math, but that's pretty much about it, the basic. Instead of teaching problem solving skills, knowing the schools will never teach enough to the students about life or being a human being, all I see is the schools deciding what is best for students and funneling all the knowledge they think is best suited for students, and demand each of them to get all the questions right in tests.
But FIRST isn't like that. In FIRST, you have the overall problem of the competition, and you do EVERYTHING humanly possibly to try to build a good machine to do well in the game. FIRST doesn't tell the students what they HAVE TO LEARN, and instead sit aside and let the students learn to solve problems, and learn to seek help. And that, I believe, is a better form of education.
But maybe it's silly of us to think FIRST as a new approach to education. But hey, FIRST is only a technology to get students inspired for science, technology, and engineering... Maybe FIRST is too costly for every student to participate… Maybe there just isn’t enough room for everyone if it takes so much to inspire so little… If we really care about changing the education system, maybe we gotta look over FIRST into more areas of effective education programs, or maybe start some ourselves. That would be nice, wouldn’t it ;-), to have an effective education system for all students and help them to be better human beings?
And that continue to be my wishes.