Education Through Aviation
by Bill Pritchett, Education Director
“A positive word of encouragement can help change anyone’s destiny.”
One day, as a small child, Thomas Edison came home from school and gave a paper to his mother. He said to her, “Mom, my teacher gave this paper to me and told me only you are to read it. What does it say?” Her eyes welled with tears as she read aloud the letter to her child: “Your son is a genius and this school is too small for him and doesn’t have good enough teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself.”
Many years after Edison’s mother had died, he became one of the greatest inventors of the century. One day, he was going through a closet and found the letter that his old teacher wrote his mother that day. The message in the letter was, “Your son is mentally deficient. We won’t let him come to school anymore.”
Edison became emotional upon reading it and wrote in his diary: “Thomas A. Edison was a mentally deficient child whose mother turned him into the genius of the century.”
My wife shared this story with me and I found it moving. We all recognize the value of a mother’s love for her children, but maybe that’s the ultimate. For the rest of us, it might simply come down to saying the right thing at the right time. It’s about creating an environment that isn’t your ideal teaching situation, but rather the learning zone that makes the students comfortable and anxious to learn.
It sounds simple. It isn’t, but if you have the chance, challenge yourself to say something positive. Many of our members share their flying experience with new club members. More do outreach in their community promoting model aviation, often with schools and/or student organizations. Encourage them. Realize that everyone isn’t the same and therefore won’t learn in the same way or time. There is a great deal of evidence pointing to giving a student what he or she wants—not what you think the person needs.
Do you have various techniques that you use to share model aviation? I hope so because there are many students to be taught.
Last month I introduced to you our PR firm in Washington, D.C., CLS, and the initiative we kicked off the first week of January: Generations of Flight (www.generationsofflight.com). Generations of Flight is where you tell your story of how model aviation has played a role in your life. We want photos, stories—whatever you have. This will become a great repository of model aviation history.
Might there be an ulterior motive for yours truly? Maybe. A number of times I’ve mentioned the term “learning pathway.” It basically answers the question, “How the heck did you get here?” For our purposes, “here” is an involvement in model aviation, aviation, engineering, or aerospace—basically anything to do with flying. Along this pathway, what role did an involvement in model aviation play?
For a long time, I’ve thought that the best way to find out would be to take various control groups of students going down a specific path and track them. Let’s engage those in the industry right now and find out about their history and if they were ever touched by model aviation.
This is by no means limited to AMA members. I hope to hear from EAA members, for example. Each time I attend an EAA event, countless people tell me, “Wow, I remember building a Sig Cadet in 1965, etc. … I still have the radio and can’t believe how much model aviation has changed.”
If you haven’t sent us your story, do. If you know anyone in the aviation industry, share.
Partners are a critical component of the AMA Education department. We are fortunate to have many outstanding contributors, and this month I wanted to share with you the Arconic Foundation.
The Arconic Foundation used to be the Alcoa Foundation. Alcoa has decided to split its foundation and the new one, Arconic, is supporting AMA. We have been a partner of Alcoa for 11 years and have benefited financially by receiving nearly $700,000. In turn, we have been able to share a model aviation experience with thousands of students.
Dr. Gordon Schimmel, our education outreach director, is our liaison with Arconic and he had a great idea. Let’s nominate Arconic for the Dr. Mervin K. Strickler Award. Part of that process was to write a letter of recommendation, and I want to share my letter with you:
“Dear members of the Strickler Selection Committee:
“I have the honor of writing on behalf of the Arconic Foundation for the National Coalition for Aviation and Space Education’s Mervin Strickler award.
“The concept of putting a model airplane into the hands of young people was the impetus of forming the Academy of Model Aeronautics more than 80 years ago. Although many, if not most, things about model aviation have changed in that period of time, the value of hands-on learning has not. Sweeping changes to both of our organizations throughout the years include this unwavering thread. That has not changed.
“As the AMA has deepened its roots in the aviation industry, the value of modeling has continued to increase. For more than a decade, the Arconic Foundation has partnered with us to provide an initial hands-on model aviation experience to more than 10,000 young people. As a nonprofit, we would never have been able to provide this outreach without the Arconic Foundation.
“Education through aviation is our departmental motto, and there simply isn’t a better example of a partner that supports these words. The Arconic Foundation is wildly deserving of this recognition and has earned this honor.”
Arconic was not selected. The winner? Dr. Jeff Montgomery, director of education for the Civil Air Patrol—another great partner and equally deserving. We’re lucky to be working with so many great organizations. Congratulations, Jeff!
Fly and have fun!
