Quote:
Originally Posted by flargen507
While it sounds great in practice, and in principle I agree that going around accusing teams that their robot was built by their mentors is unprofessional and can be rude. But I just had the experience of having to look at 30 depressed and distraught faces about a regional where our robot barely moved. Do you want me to look at them and tell them that our robot lost because the other teams were just way better than us and all of their hard work and pain wasn't good enough? Sometimes to keep a group of kids to not just quit out of anger you have to console them. Sometimes that means telling them that those other teams were a bunch of mentor bots just to keep the peace. Is it the nicest thing to do? No. Is it the most gracious thing to do? No. But at that point it is one of the only ways to keep inspiring that group of kids.
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I've said this John Abele quote many times, but I'll repeat it here since it's especially poignant. "There are two ways to compete in this world, you can rise above your opponents, or you can drag them down". I don't see how there's anything to be gained by criticizing your opponents to your students, and lying to them about how their robots were built. Take a look at this video where I talk about ethical competition and how it applies to young people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...kEVgQ#t=27 5s (Starts at 4:34, becomes super relevant at 7:08)
What is there to be gained by discrediting your opponent? There are two types of people in this world. Those who are inspired be excellence, and those who are put off by it. Those who see excellence and are inspired by it are the ones who will eventually achieve it. Those who see excellence and feel the need to discredit it in effort to shield themselves from their own shortcomings are the ones who will have an almost impossible time trying to improve themselves.
You are right, no one is in any position to judge how you choose to inspire your team. I just hope that you can see that there may be some flaws in the path you're choosing.