Education Through Aviation
by Bill Pritchett
"I touch the future. I teach." —Christa McAuliffe
Last month I reviewed the state of some initiatives in the AMA Education department. I hope that many of you learned something you didn't know!
We seem to have plenty of "plates spinning," and although that's how I like it, I also think it's critical for our members to be aware of what we do, why we do it, and how it benefits our future members.
That's really the criteria for evaluation that drives us: find the knowledge, share the knowledge, and encourage our national organization to engage in local outreach that presents model aviation as the fun choice in advancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum.
This month we will look toward the future, and it's our hope that within this written-down dream, you might find yourself actively participating.
Let's start with this month's quote. I usually don't elaborate because most of them stand on their own, and this month's certainly does as well, but there is a great deal of benefit in understanding the comprehensive approach that Christa McAuliffe shares.
She said that if you teach, you touch the future. Although I couldn't agree more, please keep in mind that she didn't say "if you teach children."
One of the true qualities of model aviation is the willingness most involved have in sharing information with others. That's teaching! If you've taught someone how to fly a model—any kind of model—that's teaching, regardless of age. If you've shown another modeler how to do anything, you've participated in touching the future. You've been teaching!
Doesn't most of this happen at the club/flying field level? Sure, and couldn't we therefore consider our clubs as learning communities? More on that in a bit ...
Christa McAuliffe had more than one prophetic moment. The year that McAuliffe was born, her father was completing his sophomore year at Boston College. Not long after, he took a job as an assistant comptroller in a Boston department store, and the family moved to Framingham, Massachusetts, where Christa attended and graduated from Marian High School in 1966.
As a youth, she was inspired by Project Mercury and the Apollo moon-landing program. The day after John Glenn orbited the Earth in Friendship 7, she asked a friend at Marian High School, "Do you realize that someday people will be going to the moon? Maybe even taking a bus, and I want to do that!" She wrote years later on her NASA application form, "I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate."
We, too, are watching things being born, and as an organization, can benefit greatly through continued pursuit of an educational and informational approach to many topics. Some future considerations might include:
- The AMA becomes "the clearinghouse" for "Education Through Aviation" using model aviation.
- AMA clubs develop into easily found learning communities that continually share "Education Through Aviation."
- The online resources from the AMA provide all necessary curriculum and assistance in delivery of materials.
- The AMA embraces the educational needs of the sUAS community and the recreational and educational use of model aviation is moved light years away from the term "drone."
These four goals are ambitious and necessary. For many of you, finding your "piece of heaven" and pulling up the ladder isn't going to accomplish what needs to be done. You will have to get out of that folding chair and teach. Share what means so much to you.
It's nearly Christmas. Give someone the gift of model aviation! Fly and have fun!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
