"I'm not that smart"

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by SafetyGracie

Our team had a booth set up at our 4H fair, trying to get attention from kids who might want to join. Some of us were driving around the '06 and '08 robot, and the other half were building a new, vex type robot just for the fun of it.
Well, a few boys seemed pretty interested, they were watching us drive and build, and when I asked him if he was interested in joining the team, he said "I'm not that smart."
That's not the first time I've had that response, I've been getting it a lot lately. Does anyone else have this problem, and more importantly, how do we dispell the myth that FIRST and the robotics teams in general are only for the genius and the tech geek?

If they knew how to do it all already, this program wouldn't be needed. That is the beauty of this program, it is about learning, even for the parents and mentors.

I tell them my story when I hear stuff about "I'm not smart", or "I can't ever figure this out". I spent a year in FIRST before I even heard righty tighty lefty loosey. I didn't know anything about tools, robots or engineering. I knew one thing, this program got me three days excused absence from school. That's all I knew, and over time I learned a lot (and still learn to this day). FIRST was the best thing that accidentally happened to me.

Smart and stupid, these are just words, labels people put on someone or something. Can you work hard? Are you willing to learn and challenge yourself? That is all that is needed in FIRST.

I would recommend putting a human face to this experience and telling what you've learned and seen accomplished. Most people seem to relate to that really well.