[Cynette]

I keep reading this thread and each time I ponder giving a response, but I'm never sure where to begin. Today, I'll give it a go, spurred on by the "thick skin / thin skin" discussion.

Why does it matter what the demographic make-up of a team is in FIRST? All girl, all boy, coed... why is that even a discussion? Do we have the same discussion about teams formed with all honor students, or all gifted students, as opposed to all levels of ability students? Should we wonder about the efforts to start teams in inner cities where they will be more likely to be poor and minority instead of affluent and white? And there are schools that have the audacity to force students who want to be on FIRST teams to take a specific course curriculum to be eligible! The characterizations could go on.

Let's ask the same question about those groups. Is it counterproductive to the philosophy of FIRST have a team of all gifted kids? Surely they don't need to be be given the opportunity to participate with other gifted students in a program like FIRST? They need to be able to get along with the normal kids to survive in the future, don't they? Aren't there average kids who are being denied participation on a FIRST team if it is exclusive like that?

Is it counterproductive to the philosophy of FIRST have a team from an inner city or totally rural area? If they wanted to be on a FIRST team, surely they can move to a school which already has one? The amount of effort expended to have a successful team in those areas is much higher than a suburban school; won't we cause more inspiration if we get FIRST teams in all of those first?

I hope everyone realizes that these are indeed rhetorical questions and that the answer in each of these cases is NO! It is not counterproductive to the FIRST philosophy.

As a engineer who happens to be a female... and who has been an engineer for almost 30 years, I find it rather sad that we still need to have this discussion. I still cannot understand why in the 34 years since I started on my path to become an engineer, it has not become more transparent for young women to pursue engineering as their career choice, or why we have girls in our schools today who are still told that girls shouldn't like math, or why girls on FIRST teams are directed to non-engineering tasks.

Based on my experience with Team 1511 - which is coed, 1 in every 4 of the girls who start on our team has the personal fortitude to push through the circle of boys to become the mechanical, electrical, or programming star. If you get one, she will take at least one or two others with them. If you don't have one of "those" girls, you need something special on tap to push them through that barrier. All-girl teams prevent that barrier from forming in the first place. Should it be that way? No. But it is. I've watched brilliant girls circle around the outside of that barrier and not be able to break through. They don't stay on the team. Is that counter-productive to the philosophy of FIRST? I think it is.

FIRST needs us to use every tool in our arsenal to provide inspiration to as many students as possible. Forming All-girl teams are part of that tool-kit. They work.

A note on the "Thick Skin" discussion: We all need coping tools for learning to deal with jerks. But it doesn't require a thick skin, because jerkiness should not need to be tolerated. I've never mastered the thick skin, but I have mastered handling myself as a professional in those situations. I give credit to my husband as a true gentleman for teaching me those skills rather than lowering myself to take on traditional hardened reactionary response mechanisms.