Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Chiang
I like to think that the robotic aspect of FIRST is about students building robots accomplishing tasks better than everyone else's robots. Parity does not imply knocking the elite teams down.
To enforce more parity, all they would have to do is announce "FIRST is primary about students. Mentors, remember you're only here to help, not do it for them". If they emphasize that philosophy (which would be great), mentor-ran teams would not disappear overnight, but their legitimacy would decline, and teams will change; the competition would become a much less hostile atmosphere between alleged elite teams and normal teams.
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Patrick,
This is quite simply not how FIRST works, or ever was intended to work. Go look up comments from Dave/Woodie/Dean/etc to this effect over the years.
How would it be fair to bring down teams who worked hard to get the resources they've acquired? We spend a LOT of time developing relationships with local machine shops and others who can donate services like powdercoating, anodizing, welding, etc.
This is how the real world works. When our students get mechanical engineering degrees there's probably a 90% chance they will never touch a machine tool during their professional career. That doesn't mean we don't teach them how to machine parts, because we believe that it's critical for engineers to know how things are made.
I could say a lot more about your claims of fairness and equality and mentor vs student, but as Andy Baker is fond of saying, arguing on the internet is like wrestling with a pig. You get dragged down in the mud and get dirty and the pig enjoys it. You're clearly not going to change your opinion.