Tom,
That's actually sightly worse than I had thought. I was going to leave the
point of making indoor activities alone because that goes so far against
indoor's open door policy that I thought it would be dismissed out right.
When I was in middle school a SO mentor and indoor flier or some renowned
washed his hands of me because my middle school had no chance of making it
to SO nationals. I was disappointed by this as you can image. At that age I
was very enthusiastic for anything that flew. Thankfully, My mom made the
three hour drive once a month so I could fly with people like Bill Gowen,
Chris Goins and Steven Richmond. After I made the US junior team the mentor
in my home town that had wanted nothing to do with me became amicable again
and actually tired to claim credit for helping me to be successful.
Of the handful of young indoor fliers I know, very few of them were
remarkable as kids. In fact, many of the best of them were awkward as kids,
and very introverted. I think that majority of us would have fallen through
the cracks of the education system if it wasn't for indoor and the
generosity of a few mentors.
Indoor has the problem of being intrinsically exclusive due to the large
number of specialized skills required to build a completion model. I think
if we try to filter kids in anyway we will miss at least half of the kids
that would be interested and would benefit from the hobby. The kids at the
top of the selection process will have all kinds of opportunities to do
wonderful things because they have been recognized for being at the top of
their peers. Lets go after the kids that wouldn't be doing anything else. I
know that our goal is to perpetuate our hobby, but on some level the hobby
also changes the lives of the people who practice it.
Lastly, I've flown in Lakehurst alone a few times, its very lonely. If take
I take only the "chosen" I'll be able to comfort myself when there are no
flying sites left with the fact I am one of a handful of people that can
pour microfilm or build a .4gram model. Where's the fun in that?
Nick
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 2:32 PM, Thomas <parkreation_at_msn.com> wrote:
>
>
> Nick,
>
> My recommendation for using guidance counselors and teachers was in
> reference to selecting kids to be in a national competition AND NOT the
> training. Mentoring, training and timing can be done by anyone.
>
> A guidance counselor at our high school has recommended kids to become a
> "Natural Helpers". Yea, I never heard of it before either but she read the
> info that came across her desk. Through a selection process 20 kids at our
> high school were chosen. It seems to be a neat opportunity.
>
> That guidance counselor HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TRAINING for Natural
> Helpers. All she did was help confirm the best kids for the opportunity.
> That was the format I suggested for the indoor national postal contest for
> students. Why not ask those in guidance, teaching, administration who know
> the students' skills the best and allow them to make that positive contact?
>
> Tom
>
>
> > Lastly, I think we should place the burden of starting indoor promoting
> > actives on people who don't currently fly. Guidance councilors have there
> > hands full with children whose parents are meeting their children's basic
> > needs. Teachers, especially public school teachers make all of 1000
> dollars
>
> > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Thomas <parkreation_at_...> wrote:
>
>
>
Received on Thu Oct 14 2010 - 17:48:14 CEST