Quote:
Originally Posted by 2544HCRC
I see the same sort of thing happening in FRC. Our kids aren't that into robots or robotics. The dozen or so kids that are part of the team will commit (kind of) to a 6 week build season and do a little fundraising, but overall it's a side thing. For most, everything else comes first. I've had kids miss practice because of the swim team, tennis, the school play, bowling, and even because they had an opportunity to go to a friends party or just because they wanted to sleep in and take it easy on a Saturday. I end up (thank god) with 1 or 2 kids that are into it and commit more time than they should. I have no help outside of a couple of parents. The local engineers have been burnt out by the other local teams (both in the double or tripple digit range). They aren't interested in commiting to being away from their family multiple nights a week and the weekend. FRC is becoming more and more competative. Practice bots, multiple regionals, etc, etc, are all leaving the casual teams further and further behind. I'm sure in some minds that's a good thing but if the goal is to expose kids to STEM in an engaging way I see it as very limiting.
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Definitely read IKE's response to this.
As he said, it's perfectly fine if you have kids who don't want to commit because they are doing other things. That's
awesome that they're doing other things, and if that's what they want to do, they should keep at it. But people have to realize that you only get what you work for. And if there are students who want to do robots day in/day out, why "level the playing field" to make it impossible for them to excel? Your team may not have a student commitment to win on Einstein, but you can still get a lot out of this program. And if you do end up with students who decide that's what they want to pursue, let's keep it enough of a challenge that they can really be proud of it.