Okay, I don’t actually know anything about the Alabama “Roll Tide” football team, and the only connection I have to the Golden State Warriors was when he who shall not be named defected to them from our Thunder team, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I don’t like either team. It’s totally irrational, but it’s real. I know exactly why, too. It’s because they’re too good. Nobody stands a chance! Isn’t that a ridiculous reason to dislike a team? Because they are “overqualified”? I know many people feel the same way as I do. When you think about it, it really is a stupid reason not to like a team, and I’ll probably re-evaluate after writing this.
I spend much of my year pushing gifted kids to try multiple talents. I tell them that, as gifted, they are likely to be “jacks-of-all-trades and masters of none.” Because of this, I get to see a lot of success at the hands of these kids. This last weekend, my secondary students participated in the BEST Robotics competition. This is not a kit-building exercise. This contest gives the kids plywood, PVC, Plexiglass, and metal with which to build the robot. They get two large motors, two small motors, four servos, and a Vex brain and controller to program. It’s truly a difficult feat for kids to build a robot from scratch! We compete for the BEST Award, which means we also prepare an eight-foot cubic display about how we promoted STEM, a marketing presentation to “sell” our robot to the judges, and an Engineering Process Notebook detailing how we built the robot. Add being judged for our spirit on game day, and one has six weeks of intense work and late hours.
My students made a beautiful display, did a fantastic job on their marketing presentation, cheered like crazy, and even sang the National Anthem in three-part harmony. At the end of the day, we’d won 3rd place in the BEST Award, the pumpkin decorating contest (added because it’s so close to Halloween), and most photogenic robot. All this with a robot who did not function as we intended at all! As a coach, I hurt for my build team because I was there all those nights they worked till 10:30. I know how humiliating it is to not have a great robot. In the end, it is ultimately my fault because I don’t know enough about engineering to tell them what they are doing wrong. Luckily, they get the chance to try again, now that we are moving on to the next level of competition.
It got me to thinking about our topic, though. There are teams at our level and at the regional level who always win. I’m not implying that nobody likes them. They’re kids, after all. But if something goes wrong for them, no one else is very sympathetic. I find myself being almost thankful that we have an Achilles heel.
Constantly winning can lead to a “big head.” I don’t want our team to be known for always winning. I want our kids to be known as multi-talented, nice kids. We lose the support of those around us when we become unbeatable. We knew going in that our robot had not worked successfully for more than five seconds. We had already come to peace with it. The kids and I talked about the journey being the important part, and we have had quite a journey! We’ve become so much more environmentally conscience due to the theme of the game. We have learned so much about programming. We will begin again on our robot, and we’ll try to build one that can complete the tasks required. But we are not looking for building the winning robot in less time than we originally had. We just want a robot that works consistently.
Because gifted kids are so good at so many things, it is important that we, as parents and teachers, keep them humble. I will not cease to push my kids to experience their true potentials; I’ll just make sure they recognize the need for humility as well.
Michelle