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Re: Inspiration is not measured by time
Posted by mike aubry.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Engineer on team #47, Chiefs, from Pontiac Central.
Posted on 6/1/99 3:22 PM MST
In Reply to: Eating lead in 2000 posted by michael bastoni on 5/31/99 9:00 AM MST:
Mr. B.
You are such an articulate person and oh so inspirational to all, BUT - your comment regarding the
following raises a concern!
: A minimum of 10 weeks prep time (building the machine, the animation, the CA, the FFL, the
: fundraising, the 'Community Events' (I so hate that term)...all for what....FOR 1 or 2 brief
: moments of thrilling excitement and INSPIRATION.?
The objective of inspiring each other, (engineers inspiring students, teachers inspiring students, students
inspiring engineers, etc.) cannot be measured by the amount of time that we interact on a robotics playing field.
I have found that the most inspiring events have occured at a wide variety of times, and that by far most if not all of
them were no way near a FIRST playing field or in the close proximity of a robot. Many times just talking with them
about all kinds of everyday things have lead me to be inspired, and hopefully the students feel the same.
The issue isn't how much we play the game - I don't think the challenges of the game or the robot is the cause of the
inspiration. The game and the robot are the glue that brings students, teachers, and engineers together such that
the interaction may hopefully result in an inspirational occurance - for everyone. I know that I get inspired every year
by the students and teachers on our team. I can only hope that by some small miracle I can inspire someone to go on
and continue their education in a field of technology, or continue to participate in FIRST. Unfortunately, the time factor
is real and must be dealt with. Continuing to play the game (same or otherwise) by extending the season doesn't mean
that we will increase our chances of inspiring any additional students, teachers, or engineers. But, I do fear that we will
burn them out! I don't think that burned out people are as able to inspire others, so we must be careful about 'How much'
time. You make a whole lot of sense, and believe me its been felt here on team 47 as well. The problem is that this thing
that we all love so much can be whatever you (individually) want it to be, but you know as well as I do that collectively (even
just on a team by team basis) it is almost impossible to agree on what it should be & how it should be run. Keep up the great
work, and the inspirational comments.
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