We stand on shoulders of giants

[Mike Rush]

While we all look back and appreciate the shoulders of the giants of the past upon which we are standing, let us not forget that we are the giants of today. Ours are the shoulders on which others will be standing in the future.

After your experience with FIRST is over as a student always remember where it was you came from and what it was that shaped you. If you decide to be a teacher and a group of students want to start a team, be the shoulder. If you become a person of authority in a company and students from your local school show up looking for support, be the shoulder. If you are a business owner and a local teacher needs team support, be the shoulder.

Always remember...Be the shoulder.

[Ken Leung]

The more I thought about learning and education, the more complicated they are to me.

There are many paths you can take in the formal education system, people choose where they want to go based on many factors, such as interest, career, money, and so on. There are also many things you can learn without the education system, and people choose what they want to learn based on many factors too, but more toward interest and what you already know (in other words, you are more likely to learn something you have some knowledge about).

It is a matter of how to develope people's interest, in other words, how to inspire them about a certain field.

I am more and more convinced that education, learning, and career are the paths we have to take in our lives, but inspiration is what open the doorway that lead us to those paths. Without inspiring kids to be more enthusiastic about science and technology, they are less likely to follow this field of studies/career. Without inspiring kids about curing disease, or creating a music master piece, they aren't going to want to become a doctor, or a musician. There are many paths out there, but inspiration is the key to the doorway of those paths.

Of course, there are certain mandatory paths we each have to go through, such as language, basic math skills, and other things we learn when we are small. There are other mandatory paths you have to take depending on what field of studies/career you decided on, such as calculus and physics for engineering, writing skills for journalism, and so on.

I think the key is to inspire the students as much as possible, while getting them to complete those mandatory paths so they have a better foundation for the future doorways/paths. The hardest thing to do is, how do we balance between how much is mandatory and how much is by choice. And meanwhile, how do we balance between teaching them to know and teaching them to think.

Very tricky thing to think about.